While the debate on euthanasia is back in the spotlight with the apex court’s directive, staff at KEM Hospital is resisting mercy killing of Aruna Shanbaug, who has been admitted to ward no 4 of the hospital since 38 years.
Dr Sanjay Oak, dean, KEM hospital, said, “We have no moral right to terminate her life. I am certainly against euthanasia for Shanbaug. So far, I haven’t received any correspondence about the committee coming to visit her.”
“She means a lot to KEM hospital. She is on liquid diet and loves listening to music. We have never subjected her to intravenous food or fed her via a tube. All these years, she hasn’t had even one bedsore. When those looking after her do not have a problem, I don’t understand why a third party who has nothing to do with her [lawyer Pinky Virani who has moved the apex court to seek euthanasia for Shanbaug] needs to worry,” added Dr Oak, who, when he took over as dean of KEM hospital in 2008, visited her first to take her blessings. “I call on her whenever I get time. I am there whenever she has dysentery or any another problem. She is very much alive and we have faith in the judiciary,” said Dr Oak.
Even doctors in favour of euthanasia say Shanbaug’s is a weak case for assisted death. “To qualify for euthanasia, a person should ask for it voluntarily, has to be of sound mind, must have exhausted all the existing treatment modalities along with pain management, and the disease must be incurable. Shanbaug is in a vegetative state and the question of power of attorney is unresolved as she has no kin,” said Dr Nagraj Huilgol, head of oncology at Nanavati Hospital, who is pro-euthanasia.
Aruna, now 60, joined KEM Hospital as a nurse in 1966. She was brutally attacked by Valmiki in 1973. He sodomised her after strangling her with a dog chain, cutting off the oxygen supply to her brain.
