SC allows passive euthanasia for 31-year-old on life support for 13 years

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has allowed euthanasia of Harish Rana (31), a Delhi resident who has been on life support for the past 13 years. The court granted permission on the plea of his elderly parents. The court also considered the opinion of doctors that there is no point in continuing life only with the help of machines. The Supreme Court also clarified that the ventilator support being provided to Harish Rana can be withdrawn. The verdict was declared by a bench comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan.

Rana's parents filed the plea in the Supreme Court last October seeking euthanasia. Harish Rana, an engineering student of Punjab University, fell off the fourth floor of a paying guest accommodation in 2013 and suffered serious head injuries. He was put on life support since then. He was confined to a bed with a tracheostomy tube for respiration and a gastrojejunostomy tube for feeding.

His parents said that they have spent the maximum of their wealth for their son. They sold their house in Delhi's Mahavir Enclave. They later shifted to a small house in Ghaziabad. The parents and siblings have lost hope completely on Harish returning to life. The family said that he deserves a clean and peaceful death without further suffering. They approached the Delhi High Court in July 2024 for euthanasia, but the request was rejected. The family then approached the Supreme Court.