Dr. Vikram .R. Lotwala

The mood at KEM Hospital on Thursday, which has been home to Nurse Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug for the past 36 years, was that of anger after the employees learnt about the plea moved in the Supreme Court, asking to stop her force-feeding. Aruna, who was a nurse at the hospital, was attacked by a ward boy on the night o f November 27, 1973. He sodomised the then 25-year-old Aruna after strangling her with a dog chain, which left her blind, paralysed and speechless. Today, she lies in a vegetative state at the hospital. Nurses and ayahs, who have been relentlessly looking after the 61-year-old woman, felt that no one, except Aruna, had the right to take decisions about her life. The same sentiment was echoed by KEM dean Dr Sanjay Oak who said the hospital was absolutely resolute to take care of her as they have been doing all these years. "All of us at the hospital will look after her,'' he said. Oak added that he had faith in the judiciary. "We are sure that the Suprem...

A recent judgment by the Supreme court in South Korea has ordered patient’s respirator removed on request of patient relatives. Doctors treating a comatose woman must remove her from life support as her family requested, the South Korean supreme court said on Thursday—the first time it has ruled in favour of a patient’s right to die. The relatives had filed petition against the hospital as it was not ready to stop the ventilator. The patient was in vegetative state for more than a year. The relatives had argued that patient had always opposed keeping people alive with machines. Does this ruling open up a pandoras box? We still do not know, but it is really a food for thought. How many people in poor country like India can afford a expensive ICU treatment for the dear ones. Such patients not only drain the resources but even the relatives too. But legalizing euthanasia will creates problems medico-legally, specially in cases of suicides.