In a significant decision, the Supreme Court of India has permitted passive euthanasia for a man who has remained in a permanent vegetative state for over a decade.
A Bench comprising J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan allowed the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment for 31-year-old Harish Rana, who suffered severe brain injuries after falling from a building in 2013. Since then, he had been in a persistent vegetative state with no meaningful signs of recovery.
The Court noted that medical evaluations conducted by both primary and secondary medical boards indicated that the patient had not responded to treatment and that the continuation of life-sustaining measures would only prolong his biological existence without any therapeutic improvement.
Rana’s parents had approached the Court seeking permission to withdraw life support after caring for him for many years without any improvement in his condition. Medical experts and family members were of the view that discontinuing clinically assisted nutrition and hydration would be in the patient’s best interests.
The ruling marks one of the first practical applications of the Supreme Court’s earlier jurisprudence recognising the right to die with dignity and allowing passive euthanasia under specific safeguards. In earlier landmark decisions such as Common Cause v Union of India and Aruna Shanbaug v Union of India, the Court had recognised passive euthanasia and laid down guidelines governing withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment in exceptional circumstances.
The latest order applies those principles to permit withdrawal of life support, marking a significant development in India’s evolving legal framework on end-of-life care and the right to die with dignity.
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