Harish Rana, the first person in India to be permitted to undergo passive euthanasia, passed away in the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, on Tuesday, according to a PTI report.
Passive euthanasia is the act of intentionally allowing a patient's death by disconnecting them from the life support machinery and practices that were keeping them alive.
Rana, 31, has been in a coma for the last 13 years after he suffered permanent brain damage (formally called a diffuse axonal injury) from a fall. Rana, a civil engineering student from Panjab University had fallen from the fourth floor of his paying guest living quarters, his nerve cells taking extensive damage from the impact. He was 20 years old when the incident took place.
After the accident Rana was in a persistent vegetative state and was being kept via medical intervention, such as artificial nutrition support and occasional oxygen support.
Rana was shifted from his home in Ghaziabad on March 14 to the palliative care unit at Dr BR Ambedkar Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
The caregivers progressively withdrew Rana's nutritional support after he was admitted to the hospital at the behest of his parents Ashok and Nirmala Rana who he is survived by. Ashoka Rana had said that passive euthanasia would restore his son Harish's dignity after years of suffering from an irreversible medical condition.
Ashok and Nirmala Rana had initially moved to the Delhi High Court and then the Supreme Court in 2024, to receive legal sanction to go ahead with euthanasia, but were initially rejected as the courts had ruled that passive euthanasia was not the same as withdrawal of nutritional support
Ashok and Nirmala Rana stated that their son was being kept alive through artificial means and requested permission for artificial euthanasia as his situation was not improving. This time around, they were granted legal permission to go ahead with the procedure.
The decision set a new legal precedent with regards to the Indian legislature surrounding passive euthanasia.
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