The Supreme Court has finally allowed passive euthanasia, which takes us back to Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug, a nurse at the KEM Hospital who lay like a vegetable, at ward number 4 for 42 years.
Aruna was sexually assaulted by a ward boy on November 27, 1973 when she was changing her clothes after work. The rapist had tied with a dog chain around her neck while he assaulted her. The next morning, Arun was found in a pool of blood; the chain around her neck had cut off the oxygen supply to her brain for over 8 hours.
Aruna was engaged to be married to a doctor at the same hospital ahead of her rape.
She suffered brain stem and cervical cord injury and went into a coma for the next four decades. However, colleagues and nurses at the KEM hospital fed hear and cleaned her. They refused to let her go. They cared for her so well that not a single bed sore developed in those 40 years.
Though the ward boy Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki was caught but not convicted of rape. He was instead convicted of theft and assault. He served two seven-year terms and was released.
Activist, journalist and author Pinki Virani followed Shanbaug’s case and petitioned the Supreme Court in 2009, seeking passive euthanasia for Aruna. Virani had said Aruna had “died on November 27, 1973”. Nurses caring for Ms Shanbaug opposed the plea and refused to let her die.
Back in 2011, the apex court had turned down Virani’s plea, however, it said that the hospital staff with the approval of the Bombay High Court, can withdraw life support if they changed their mind.
Aruna died on May 15, 2015; after being diagnosed with pneumonia.
Ms Shanbaug’s case started a huge discourse on right to die with dignity, for patients in irreversible coma. The top court, in its 2011 order, for the first time said passive euthanasia should be permitted, making a distinction between active euthanasia.