{"id":30228,"date":"2024-09-30T18:35:10","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T13:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=30228"},"modified":"2024-09-30T18:35:12","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T13:05:12","slug":"draft-guidelines-on-passive-euthanasia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/30-09-2024\/draft-guidelines-on-passive-euthanasia","title":{"rendered":"Draft Guidelines on Passive Euthanasia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Polity\/Health<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released draft guidelines for the <strong>withdrawal of life support in terminally ill patients.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Euthanasia<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Euthanasia is the <strong>act of deliberately ending a person\u2019s life<\/strong> to eliminate pain or suffering\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ethicists differentiate between <strong>active and passive euthanasia.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Passive euthanasia <\/strong>entails the deliberate <strong>decision to withhold or withdraw medical interventions<\/strong>, like life support, with the aim of permitting a person&#8217;s natural death.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Active Euthanasia <\/strong>is the intentional act of killing a terminally ill patient on voluntary request, by the direct intervention of a doctor for the purpose of the good of the patient. It is illegal in India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Draft Guidelines<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Definition of The Terminal Illness: <\/strong>It has been defined as an irreversible or incurable condition from which death is inevitable in the foreseeable future.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Severe devastating traumatic brain injury which shows no recovery after 72 hours or more is also included.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The withdrawal of life support can be done <strong>under the four conditions:\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The individual must be<strong> declared brain stem dead<\/strong> as per the Transplantation of Human Organs (THOA) Act.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Medical prognostication must indicate that the patient&#8217;s condition is advanced and <strong>unlikely to benefit<\/strong> from aggressive therapeutic interventions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The patient or surrogate must document an <strong>informed refusal<\/strong>, following prognostic awareness, to continue life support.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There must be<strong> compliance with procedures<\/strong> prescribed by the Supreme Court.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Legal Principles: <\/strong>The legal principles outlined by the Supreme Court state an adult patient capable of taking healthcare decisions <strong>may refuse LST<\/strong> even if it results in death.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>LST may be withheld or withdrawn lawfully under certain conditions from persons who no longer retain decision-making capacity, based on the <strong>fundamental right to Autonomy, Privacy and Dignity.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Advance Medical Directives (AMD)<\/strong> that meets specified requirements is a legally valid document.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mechanism:<\/strong> Proposals should be made by consensus among a group of at least 3 physicians who form the <strong>Primary Medical Board (PMB).<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The PMB must explain the illness, the medical treatment available, alternative forms of treatment, and the consequences of remaining treated and untreated to fully inform the surrogate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A <strong>Secondary Medical Board (SMB)<\/strong> of 3 physicians with one appointee by the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the district must validate the decision by the PMB.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Clinical Ethics Committee:<\/strong> Constituted by hospitals for audit, oversight, &amp; conflict resolution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Legal Stance<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Supreme Court had in <strong>2018 legalised passive euthanasia,<\/strong> contingent upon the person having a \u201cliving will\u201d.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>SC held that the<strong> \u2018right to die with dignity\u2019<\/strong> forms a part of the <strong>right to life under Article 21 <\/strong>of the Constitution of India.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A <strong>living will is a written document<\/strong> that specifies the<strong> actions to be taken if the person is <\/strong>unable to make their own medical decisions in the future.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Goa is the first state that has formalised,<\/strong> to some extent, the implementation of directives issued by the Supreme Court.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/cities\/delhi\/govt-comes-up-with-new-draft-guidelines-on-passive-euthanasia-9593697\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>IE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released draft guidelines for the withdrawal of life support in terminally ill patients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30229,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30228\/revisions\/30229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}