The Society for Right to Die With Dignity and the All-India Body of Medical Practitioners in Critical Care Medicine on Thursday filed a petition before the Supreme Court urging that the right to die be made legal in the country. Recently, the Law Commission of India and the law reforms panel in Kerala had suggested that euthanasia, or mercy killing, be made legal.

After senior advocate V A Mohta filed the application seeking urgent directions, the Bench headed by Justice B N Agrawal agreed to examine it. But the Bench, also comprising Justices G S Singhvi and Aftab Alam, tagged the case along with a pending petition filed by NGO Common Cause which also raises similar questions of law.

“Every individual has a fundamental freedom to choose not to live and particularly so under distressing conditions of ill-health which lead to an unremediable state,” the new petition said. Like the earlier PIL, it has also named Union ministries of Health and Law and Justice as parties to decide whether the right to refuse essential medical support systems to prolong the life of a person afflicted with terminal disease can be legalised.

On May 11, 2005, the apex court had asked the two ministries whether a person, afflicted with terminal disease, should be given the right to refuse being put on life support system after medical experts declare that he or she has reached a point of no return.

Senior advocate Mohta, who was the former chief justice of Orissa High Court, told The Indian Express how bringing a legislation in this regard would prevent its misuse. He cited examples of several countries like the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia where legislations were in place to assist terminally ill patients.