EUTHANASIA –A CHOICE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH

Dr. Priyanka*, Dr. R. C. Tiwari, Dr. Manisha Dikshit, Dr. Anoop Kumar Singh and Dr. Ved Bhushan Sharma

ABSTRACT

Euthanasia or mercy killing or physician-assisted suicide or Aid-in-dying refers to the infliction of a painless death on an individual suffering from hopelessly incurable and painful disease. Euthanasia mainly classified as 1)Active and Passive Euthanasia 2)Voluntary and Involuntary Euthanasia. It is always a controversial issue throughout the world a lot of ethical and medical issues are involved in it. Life is precious and no one has the right to take away the life of an individual, other than God. Medical view on euthanasia is too differ, if a person is suffering from intractable pain or debility he has the right to terminate the life. Positive and negative both concept related to euthanasia is a matter of debate to validate euthanasia legally. Netherlands was the first country to legalize passive voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2002. Some part of United state, Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, Poland and European countries have legalized euthanasia. Active euthanasia is not legal in our country. In 2018, The Supreme Court of India declared passive euthanasia as legal, and the right of a person to execute advance directive “living will” as permissible.

Keywords: Euthanasia, mercy killing, Physician-assisted suicide, Aid-in-dying, incurable disease, ethical, legal.