NEW DELHI: The choice is between an artificially sustained painful life and peaceful death. As a medical board of four specialised doctors told Supreme Court about the condition of 31-year-old Harish Rana who has been living with 100% disability in a permanent vegetative state for 13 years and stressed the negligible chance of his recovery, the court Thursday decided to set in motion the next stage of the process for passive euthanasia.A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan asked the director of AIIMS Delhi to set up a secondary medical board, the second step as per the procedure laid down by the apex court in 2018, and simplified in 2023, on euthanasia pleas. The plea was filed by Harish’s father, Ashok Rana. Going through the report of the primary medical board set up by Noida District Hospital, the bench noted there was no hope of recovery. “The bare reading of the letter would indicate Harish is in a pathetic condition. He was found to be lying on a bed with tracheostomy tube for respiration and gastrostomy for feeding. The photographs attached with the letter would indicate he has suffered huge bed sores. The team of doctors are of the opinion that the chance of his recovery from the present state is negligible. Harish appears to be in this vegetative condition for the past 13 years. In such circumstances…we should now proceed to the next stage in the process,” the bench said. We can’t allow 31-yr-old to live like this, that’s for sure, says SCAs per the apex court’s guidelines, a secondary medical board comprising one registered medical practitioner nominated by the chief medical officer (CMO) of the district and at least two subject experts with at least five years’ experience in the specialty concerned has to be constituted after a primary medical board approves withdrawing artificial life support for a patient in a vegetative state. Though advocate Rashmi Nandakumar, appearing for the petitioner, said that there was no need for a secondary board as the CMO was involved in the primary medical board itself, the bench decided to adhere to the procedure.It said this would be in accordance with the decision of the SC in the ‘common cause’ case. “We request the director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi to constitute a secondary board, as referred to above, and give us a report by next Wednesday, ie Dec 17. Let the matter come up for hearing on Thursday,” the bench said.At the end of the hearing, the court remarked, “We will have to do something now. We can’t allow him to live like this. That’s for sure.”Harish’s case will be the first to see a court monitor the process on a euthanasia plea since SC framed guidelines and the procedure to allow it. In 2018, the court legalised passive euthanasia by allowing withdrawal of life support for terminally ill patients and ruled that the “right to die with dignity” is a part of the fundamental right to life.The court subsequently modified its order in 2023 to simplify the process and put in place two-tier medical board to take the call on a plea for passive euthanasia and also allowed the kin of the patient to move the high court concerned in case of denial of the same.Harish had fallen from the fourth floor of his paying guest accommodation on Aug 20, 2013, while he was pursuing a B Tech degree at Punjab University. He was treated at various hospitals, but his condition did not improve. His father had first moved Delhi HC, which refused his plea to refer the case to a primary medical board.Challenging the HC order, the father said Harish’s existence in his current state is a violation of his fundamental right to dignity, and the HC had erred in not adhering to apex court guidelines.
