When 31-year-old Harish Rana, in a long-standing vegetative state, was moved from home care to a palliative unit in the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences and subsequently died after withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, India crossed a threshold it had approached cautiously for years.
Rana’s last rites were performed at the Green Park cremation ground in the national capital earlier today, marking the end of a long medical and legal journey that had drawn national attention.
The 31-year-old was in a permanent vegetative state since 2013 following a severe head injury. He was granted passive euthanasia permission by the Supreme Court on March 11.
When the Supreme Court allowed doctors to withdraw life-sustaining treatment for Harish Rana, a man who had remained in a vegetative state since a 2013 accident in Chandigarh, it did more than resolve a tragic family ordeal.
For the first time, the Supreme Court on Wednesday permitted passive euthanasia — the withdrawal of all medical treatment, including Clinically Assisted Nutrition and Hydration — for a 32-year-old Harish Rana, who has been in a comatose/permanent vegetative state for more than 12 years.
The Supreme Court permitted doctors to withdraw life-sustaining treatment for Harish Rana and directed that the process be carried out at AIIMS under medical supervision.
