An Indian woman has filed a petition in court to try to stop a male friend from travelling to Switzerland to undergo euthanasia or assisted suicide.
The 49-year-old petitioner from southern Bengaluru city, whose name has not been revealed, filed a petition in Delhi High Court seeking government intervention to stop her 48-year-old friend from travelling to Europe.
Euthanasia is the practice of intentionally ending life to relieve pain or suffering — and is partially legal in Switzerland.
India allows passive euthanasia by means of withdrawal of life support to patients in a "permanent vegetative state".
The petition, filed on Wednesday, said the man from Noida, a satellite city outside Delhi, was in 2014 found to be suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, a disorder in which the person experiences extreme fatigue and worsening physical and mental activity.
In the past eight years, his condition has deteriorated and he is now “bed-bound and is able to walk just a few steps inside home”, the petition said.
He was undergoing faecal microbiota transplantation, a treatment in the capital’s premier government-run All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) hospital for his condition, but could not continue during the Covid-19 pandemic owing “to donor availability issues”, the petition said.
He contacted Dignitas, an organisation in Zurich, Switzerland, which provides physician-assisted suicide.
'Looking at euthanasia options'
He travelled to Zurich for the first round of psychological evaluation in June this year and was waiting for the final decision, expected by the end of August.
“Looking at euthanasia options. Had enough," said a message sent by the man to the petitioner that she has attached in the petition.
But the petitioner says that if he is granted permission to travel, he will undergo assisted suicide that will cause his parents, who are in their 70s, other family members and friends "irreparable loss and hardship, who still have a ray of hope for the betterment of his condition”.
The petitioner further claims that the friend has made “false claims” before Indian as well as foreign authorities for getting travel permissions.
“He is misleading the Indian authorities, that is why we are praying for not granting him emigration clearance. We have no other option,” Subash Chandran, the advocate who represents the woman in the case, told a local newspaper.
The woman has further sought direction from India’s Health Ministry to constitute a medical board to examine his medical condition and provide him with medical assistance because the inflammatory disease is a "poorly understood condition" and research is still only in the early stages.
An attempt to commit suicide is a criminal offence in India and euthanasia is a controversial subject.
In 2018, India’s Supreme Court delivered a landmark ruling that made passive euthanasia legal for terminally ill individuals, allowing them to refuse the use of life-support measures and letting families of those in incurable coma to withdraw such measures.
The ruling came seven years after the apex court had turned down a plea for euthanasia of a nurse, Aruna Shanbaug, who spent 42 years in a vegetative state after a sexual assault. She died of natural causes in 2015.
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Uefa Nations League: How it works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
Biog
Age: 50
Known as the UAE’s strongest man
Favourite dish: “Everything and sea food”
Hobbies: Drawing, basketball and poetry
Favourite car: Any classic car
Favourite superhero: The Hulk original
The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now
'The Batman'
Stars:Robert Pattinson
Director:Matt Reeves
Rating: 5/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
Company profile
Name: Tratok Portal
Founded: 2017
Based: UAE
Sector: Travel & tourism
Size: 36 employees
Funding: Privately funded
How it works
1) The liquid nanoclay is a mixture of water and clay that aims to convert desert land to fertile ground
2) Instead of water draining straight through the sand, it apparently helps the soil retain water
3) One application is said to last five years
4) The cost of treatment per hectare (2.4 acres) of desert varies from $7,000 to $10,000 per hectare
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
