In a landmark ruling, India’s Supreme Court has approved the removal of life support of a 31-year-old man who has been in a vegetative state for more than a decade, reports the BBC.
This is the first instance of court-approved passive euthanasia in that country.
The patient, Harish Rana, had not left a will specifying directives for his treatment before he fell from from a fourth floor balcony in 2013, suffering serious injuries. He has been in a comatose state ever since.
India legalised passive euthanasia in 2018 but active euthanasia – any act that intentionally helps a person kill themselves – remains illegal.
Over the years, Rana’s parents have petitioned the courts several times to allow their son’s life support system to be removed. They said they had exhausted all of their savings caring for their son and were worried about what would happen to him after they died.
Last week his father said in a statement that his family was grateful to the Supreme Court for its “humanitarian” judgment, that it had been a difficult decision for the family but that they were doing what was best for Harish.
The Supreme Court had noted that Rana has not been responding to treatment, and “exhibits no meaningful interaction”.
Rana was an engineering student at Punjab University when he fell. Since then, he has been breathing with the help of a tracheostomy tube and is fed through a gastrostomy tube. He cannot speak, see, hear or recognise anyone, his parents have said.
In 2024, they approached the Delhi High Court seeking passive euthanasia for their son, but their plea was rejected on the grounds that Rana hadn’t been placed on life-support machines and was hence “able to sustain himself without any external aid”, the court noted.
They then went to the Supreme Court, which also declined their plea.
In 2025, they approached the Supreme Court again, saying his condition had deteriorated and that he was being kept alive “artificially” through life support machines.
The Supreme Court agreed to consider their case after two medical boards assessed Rana’s condition. Both boards said he had a negligible chance of recovering and living a normal life, and that he required external support for feeding, bladder and bowel movements.
The boards also noted that he had permanent brain damage and had suffered huge bed sores.
Last Wednesday’s order paved the way for the medical boards to “exercise their clinical judgment regarding the withdrawal of treatment”.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
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