The debate on euthanasia has recently been revived. Social norms, religious beliefs, the Hippocratic Oath, and modern medical interventions make it extremely difficult to get through the night peacefully and smoothly. The hospital code is to leave no stone unturned when it comes to interventions, procedures and operations to save human lives, even if it simply means postponing the inevitable for a few months.

Why do hospitals never provide scary statistics on how many patients actually manage to wean themselves off the ventilator, before pushing their loved ones to sign the consent form?

Active euthanasia is prohibited in Indiabut in 2011, the Supreme Court

made minimal progress on paper by legalizing passive euthanasia in the case of Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug v Union of India.

The guidelines for legal approval of withdrawing life-sustaining treatment to allow a person to die naturally are unfortunately so elaborate as to make them virtually untenable in practical terms. Shanbaug, who spent 42 years in a perpetual vegetative state due to significant brain damage resulting from sexual assault, never actually benefited from the “groundbreaking judgment” brought in his name.

Shanbaug eventually died of pneumonia.

The Supreme Court made gradual progress in 2018, in Common Cause vs the Union of India, in accepting the right to die with dignity as a fundamental right and recognizing the validity of a living will, in which a person requests that in her final days, she should not be subjected to any form of life support.

Interestingly, Common Cause’s intrepid founder, HD Shourie, himself died peacefully two years later in circumstances suggesting that he might actually have practiced what he believed in.

In the case of London-based journalist and historian Zareer Masani, there was no ambiguity about his death last August. He checked himself into a Swiss voluntary assisted dying (ADM) clinic after first wishing all his friends goodbye and sorting out his affairs.

In fact, ten months earlier, he had written an article for the journal “Chronique de ma mort announcee”, explaining the reasons why he had ended his life at one point, as he was suffering from severe respiratory and respiratory problems. other conditions.

He recalled the unfortunate fate of his father, Swatantra Party president Minoo Masani, founder of the Indian Society for the Right to Die with Dignity. Minoo’s worst fears would come true.

In his final years, he slipped into senility, was nearly deaf and blind, bedridden with a broken hip and requiring 24-hour nursing care.

At this point, he was unable to locate the lethal dose of medicine he had hidden for just this purpose.

eventuality.

Elephant in the room

Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, in his latest book, 2024: The Election which surprised India, was more frank than anyone in identifying the real reason for the BJPthe disastrous performance of UP: the undeclared war between Amit Shah and Yogi Adityanath, both seen as potential successors to Prime Minister Modi.

Sardesai describes the fight between the two men as “the elephant in the room” that no one dared to talk about. Adityanath was barred from the Lok Sabha campaign or withdrew, furious that virtually none of the candidates he had suggested received tickets in Uttar Pradesh, including General VK Singh of Ghaziabad, which turned many Jat voters against the party.

On the other hand, Shah’s candidates, like Congress Renegade Kripashankar Singh and Saket Misra, the son of Nripendra Misra who previously worked abroad, were among the foreigners blessed by Delhi, who were defeated.

Furthermore, Kripashankar Singh was one of the hundred or so BJP candidates who had defected over the last decade, a source of much concern within the party.

The asset

US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti, a Biden appointee, knew he would not stay in India after the US elections, one way or the other. If his fellow Californian, Kamala Harris had won, he had hoped for a prestigious position in the United States.

With Trump’s victory, former Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti will return home to help organize the next Olympics.

After all, he played a key role in securing this honor for his hometown. Garcetti promised that cricket would be included as an Olympic sport in 2028. The Indian government would be wise to seek his advice for Delhi to be declared host of the Olympics in 2036.