SC declines Aruna Shanbaug euthanasia plea
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the petition seeking mercy killing for Aruna Shanbaug, a former nurse who has been lying in a vegetative state in a Mumbai hospital bed for the last 37 years following sexual assault by a sweeper.
On behalf of the hospital, advocate Ballabh Sisodia had opposed the plea filed by author Pinky Virani and said the doctors and nurses, who are taking ?dedicated care? of Aruna for the past 37 years, also don?t want euthanasia for her.
Attorney General G E Vahanvati too opposed the petition saying there is ?no provision either under the statute or the constitution to permit euthanasia?.
A panel of doctors appointed by the apex court also scrutinized the case to explain the expert report after examining Aruna and present their views on euthanasia.
A Supreme Court bench of justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra reserved the verdict after hearing arguments by various parties.
Katju and Misra had appointed Dr JV Divatia, Dr Roop Gurshani and Dr Nilesh Shah to examine Aruna and submit a report.
The doctors had duly submitted the report on Feb 17, along with a CD.
The apex court Bench, after perusing the report, had asked the doctors to appear in the court to answer questions, explain the report and give their views on euthanasia.
Virani, a friend of Aruna from Mumbai, had approached the court, seeking the court?s directive to stop Aruna?s feeding as her continued vegetative existence is a violation to her right to live in dignity.
Virani has also pointed that there was no chance of Aruna?s condition improving.
Doctors who examined Aruna have also noted that the nurse meets almost all criteria of being in persistent vegetative state.
However, nurses at King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital, where Aruna worked and has been admitted since the 1973 incident, feel that Aruna should be allowed to live and are willing to take care of her till she meets her normal death.
Aruna, now 63, was attacked by a hospital sweeper Sohanlal Walmiki at the basement when she was preparing to go home on Nov 27, 1973.
The sweeper choked Aruna with a chain and then sodomized her, leaving her on the floor of the basement to die.
Walmiki, who served a term of seven years of imprisonment for attempt to murder, had said that he had assaulted Aruna after she pulled him up few times for stealing food meant for hospital animals.
Charges of sodomy were not pressed against Walmiki, fearing Aruna?s reputation could suffer.
The sweeper died recently in New Delhi of AIDS.