severe brain damage during Mumbai
attack, prompts debate about India's
euthanasia laws
The death of an Indian nurse who was in a
coma for 42 years after being sexually
assaulted while working in a hospital has
prompted a renewed debate on
euthanasia in the country.
Aruna Shanbaug suffered severe brain
damage and was in a vegetative state after
she was raped and strangled with a dog
chain by a hospital sweeper in Mumbai,
the Indian commercial capital, in 1973.
She was 25.
Shanbaug was diagnosed with pneumonia
last week and had been on a life-support
system for the past few days, said Pravin
Bangar, medical superintendent at the
city's King Edward Memorial hospital.
Her case first sparked arguments over
India's euthanasia laws after Pinki Virani,
a Mumbai-based author and friend of the
nurse, petitioned the courts to stop force-
feeding her through a tube so her
suffering would not be prolonged.
In 2011, India's supreme court rejected a
petition filed by Virani, who had sought
euthanasia for Shanbaug, saying the court
should "end her unbearable agony".
However the bench of two judges did say
that "passive euthanasia" would be
permitted under certain circumstances,
but only if, in the case of Shanbaug, the
hospital itself made the request.
"Aruna Shanbaug's parents are dead and
other close relatives have not been
interested in her ever since she had the
unfortunate assault on her," the judgment
read. "It is the KEM hospital staff, who
have been amazingly caring for her day
and night for so many long years, who
really are her next friends ... Hence it is
for [them] to take that decision."
The case had been opposed by nurses at
the hospital, who cared for Shanbaug for
more than four decades after her family
said they were unable to support her.
They celebrated the judgment as a
"rebirth" of Shanbaug.
The nurse's death has now provoked
renewed calls for the law to be reviewed.
On the Firstpost news website on
Monday, editor-in-chief R Jagannathan
said the "time for more waffle on assisted
suicide is over".
"We need a proper law on euthanasia
with strong safeguards. The right to die
with dignity is an inalienable part of the
right to life," Jagannathan wrote.
Senior medical staff who have overseen
Shanbaug's care have described
euthanasia as a western concept which is
not easily accepted in India. On Monday,
several told reporters that they were
relieved the nurse had died a "natural
death".
"We look at life differently. Our culture
believes in nurturing life till the end. And
we will care for Aruna till the very end,"
Shubhangi Parkar, dean of the hospital,
told the Times of India newspaper last
year.
Shanbaug's attacker served a seven-year
sentence in prison after being convicted
of robbery and attempted murder after
evidence of penetration was removed
from a medical report.
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