Indian woman in court to stop friend's euthanasia attempt in Europe

Man with chronic fatigue syndrome said in message that he had 'had enough'

The Delhi High Court has been asked to prevent a chronically ill man from travelling abroad to end his life with medical assistance. Mint via Getty Images

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.