[Reader-list] Unconscious for last 36 yrs; victim seeks SC permission to die

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

Unconscious for last 36 yrs; victim seeks SC permission to die*Press Trust
Of India*
New Delhi, December 17, 2009

Should a woman who has been lying unconsious in a Mumbai hospital for 36
years be allowed to die or be left in the current vegetative state?

That was the question put before the Supreme Court today when it said that
“under the law of the country, we cannot allow a person to die”.

The remarks by a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and
Justices A K Ganguly and B S Chauhan came when a direction was sought that
the woman be not fed.

The Bench sought a response from the Centre and Maharashtra government on a
petition moved by 59-year-old Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug who has been lying
in a vegetative state for last 36 years in Mumbai’s KEM hospital after being
sexually assaulted by a sweeper.

The Bench, which was hesitant to entertain the petition, agreed to issue the
notice after advocate Shekhar Nafde explained it is not the case of
“euthanasia” and the plea on behalf of the hapless woman was moved by her
next friend Pinki Virani.

“This is no human right. Her life is worse than animal existence,” the
advocate said referring to Shanbaug.

He said Shanbaug, who had joined as a nurse in the KEM hospital in 1966, was
sexually assaulted in 1973, rendered immobile and unconscious and has been
lying on bed after the incident.

The petition sought a direction for the state government and Municipal
Corporation of Brihan Mumbai to carry out tests to ascertain the medical
condition of the woman.