New Delhi, March 12 – The Supreme Court’s ruling allowing passive euthanasia for Harish Rana, who has been in a coma for 12 years, is a gift from Aruna Shanbaug “who was never treated like a human,” says journalist-activist Pinki Virani, who led the ‘die with dignity’ campaign for the Mumbai nurse in 2011.
Shanbaug remained bedridden in a vegetative state at Mumbai's KEM hospital for 42 years after a brutal sexual assault in November 1973. She died of pneumonia in 2015.
Eleven years later, the Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed passive euthanasia for 32-year-old Ghaziabad man Rana, who has been in a coma since suffering head injuries after a fall in 2013. The court directed AIIMS-Delhi to ensure that life support is withdrawn with a tailored plan so that dignity is maintained.
"All of this has allowed us to feel more human. I am finally being recognized by my own country and its judges, its government, as being mature enough to make a sensible decision if it's in the interest of the patient," Virani, now based in Canada, told
