Two years later, the court passed a law permitting passive euthanasia.
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It prompted doctors to begin the process of "passive" euthanasia, which is legal in France.
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Finally, the term "passive euthanasia" refers to hastening the death of a terminally ill person by removing some vital form of support.
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Passive euthanasia, as it is called, will apply only to a terminally ill person with no hope of recovery, a panel of five judges said.
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"At that time the Supreme Court said they will look at this whole passive euthanasia thing again, which they have, and they have upheld their own judgment," said activist and author Pinki Virani.
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In active euthanasia, a specific overt act is performed to end the patient's life whereas in passive euthanasia, something is not done that would be necessary to preserve a patient's life, the panel noted.
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Virani's plea to the top court in 2009 for passive euthanasia of Indian nurse Aruna Shanbaug, who had survived in a coma for more than 40 years after she was sexually assaulted, caught the nation's attention.
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While euthanasia is illegal in France, the law allows "passive euthanasia," in which terminally ill or injured patients with no chance of recovery are taken off life support and put under heavy sedation until their death, after extensive consultation with their families and medical experts.
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While euthanasia is illegal in France, the law allows for what has been called "passive euthanasia," in which terminally ill or injured patients with no chances of recovery are taken off life support and put into heavy sedation until their death, after extensive consultation with their families and medical staff.
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Active euthanasia is not legal in Finland. Passive euthanasia, however, is legal.
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Passive euthanasia is legal in India. On 7 March 2018 the Supreme Court of India legalised passive euthanasia by means of the withdrawal of life support to patients in a permanent vegetative state. Forms of active euthanasia, including the administration of lethal compounds, are illegal.
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This form of death is known as passive euthanasia, where death is not inflicted with drugs, but is allowed by cutting off life support.
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The term right to die has been interpreted in many ways, including issues of suicide, passive euthanasia, active euthanasia, assisted suicide, and physician-assisted suicide.
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Official statistics are scarce but bioethicist Horacio García Romero claims that up to 45% of the terminally-ill patients in the country demand some form of passive euthanasia. On October 2010 the secretary of health for Mexico City announced that, since the legalization of passive euthanasia, 497 patients have formalized the process, including at least 41 out-of-state residents and 2 citizens of the United States.
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The Israeli Penal Law forbids causing the death of another and specifically forbids shortening the life of another. Active euthanasia is forbidden by both Israeli law and Jewish law. Passive euthanasia is forbidden by Jewish law but has been accepted in some cases under Israeli law. In 2005, proposals were put forward to allow passive euthanasia to be administered using a switch mechanism similar to Sabbath clocks.
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Active voluntary euthanasia remains illegal, though a caregiver may receive a reduced punishment for taking the life of someone who consents to it. Passive euthanasia is legal.
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On 7 March 2011, the Supreme Court, in a landmark judgement, issued a set of broad guidelines legalizing passive euthanasia in India. These guidelines for passive euthanasia—i.e. the decision to withdraw treatment, nutrition, or water—establish that the decision to discontinue life support must be taken by parents, spouse, or other close relatives, or in the absence of them, by a "next friend". The decision also requires court approval.
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Passive euthanasia is legal in Germany if the patient has requested it. On 17 May 2014 the Federal Constitutional Court legalized passive euthanasia by means of the withdrawal of life support to patients who request euthanasia. Forms of active euthanasia, including the lethal compound administration, are illegal. On 6 November 2015, the German Parliament passed a bill incriminating assisted suicide if it is done in a business-like manner.
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However, in its landmark opinion, it allowed passive euthanasia in India. Shanbaug died of pneumonia on 18 May 2015, after being in a persistent vegetative state for nearly 42 years.
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Since March 2018, passive euthanasia is legal in India under strict guidelines. Patients must consent through a living will, and must be either terminally ill or in a vegetative state.
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The Church of England accepts passive euthanasia under some circumstances, but is strongly against active euthanasia, and has led opposition against recent attempt to legalise it.Why the Church of England Supports the Current Law on Assisted Suicide. Dr Brendan McCarthy Archbishops' Council Church House, London 2015 The United Church of Canada accepts passive euthanasia under some circumstances, but is in general against active euthanasia, with growing acceptance now that active euthanasia has been partly legalised in Canada.Submission to The Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying. Rev.
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While rejecting Pinki Virani's plea for Aruna Shanbaug's euthanasia, the court laid out guidelines for passive euthanasia. According to these guidelines, passive euthanasia involves the withdrawing of treatment or food that would allow the patient to live. Forms of active euthanasia, including the administration of lethal compounds, legal in a number of nations and jurisdictions including Luxemburg, Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as the US states of Washington and Oregon, are still illegal in India. Elsewhere in the world active euthanasia is almost always illegal.
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Union of India, Glanrock Estate v. State of Tamil Nadu, Aruna Shanbaug v. Union of India (the recent case that permitted passive euthanasia in India), and Novartis v. Union of India & Others (concerning evergreening of patents).
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Supreme Court of India on March 9, 2018 permitted living wills and passive euthanasia. The country's apex court held that the right to a dignified life extends up to the point of having a dignified death.
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Assisted suicide is illegal in Denmark. Passive euthanasia, or the refusal to accept treatment, is not illegal. One survey found that 71% of Denmark's population was in favor of legalizing voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.
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Euthanasia is illegal in the Philippines. In 1997, the Philippine Senate considered passing a bill legalizing passive euthanasia. The bill met strong opposition from the country's Catholic Church. If legalized the Philippines would have been the first country to legalize euthanasia.
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Moral Problems sold 100,000 copies over three editions. In 1975, Rachels wrote "Active and Passive Euthanasia", which originally appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, and argued that the distinction so important in the law between killing and letting die (often based on the principle of double effect) has no rational basis. He argued that, if we allow passive euthanasia, we should also allow active euthanasia, because it is more humane, and because there is no significant moral difference between killing and allowing to die. The End of Life (1986), a moral treatise on life and death, broadened and deepened these ideas.
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Since 2018, the Supreme Court of India has legalized passive euthanasia in India during a case involving Aruna Shanbaug under strict conditions, namely that the patient's consent (or relatives) is needed, and that the patient must be terminally ill or vegetative state.
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In 2006, the Steinberg Commission was set up to look into whether life and death issues could be rethought in the context of Jewish law, which suggested that hospitals could set up committees to determine whether patients would be given passive euthanasia.
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Active euthanasia or assisted suicide are not legal in Spain. Passive euthanasia, however, is legal. Currently, a bill to allow active euthanasia is being discussed by the senate. In February 2020 the Spanish parliament voted to approve plans to legalise voluntary euthanasia.
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L, Enero 1997 In a historic judgment, the Supreme court of India legalized passive euthanasia. The apex court remarked in the judgment that the Constitution of India values liberty, dignity, autonomy, and privacy. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra delivered a unanimous judgment.
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Active euthanasia or assisted suicide are not legal in Chile. Passive euthanasia, however, is legal. Since 2012, the regulation of patients' rights creates the right to informed consent, which allows accepting or refusing any medical treatment. Patients can refuse treatment when they are terminal.
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Passive euthanasia was deemed legal after a landmark court ruling in 2010. That means a health care professional can legally cease life support upon request from a patient if they understand the consequences stated by their health care provider, and administering a lethal substance is also illegal.
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Several major court cases advanced the legal rights of patients, or their guardians, to practice at least voluntary passive euthanasia (physician assisted death). These include the Karen Ann Quinlan case (1976), Brophy and Nancy Cruzan cases. More recent years have seen policies fine-tuned and re-stated, as with Washington v.
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The Supreme Court made its decision on 7 March 2011. It rejected the plea to discontinue Aruna's life support but issued a set of broad guidelines legalising passive euthanasia in India. The Supreme Court also refused to recognise Virani as the "next friend" of Shanbaug, a description Virani had used to file the petition.
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On 9 March 2018 the Supreme Court of India legalised passive euthanasia by means of the withdrawal of life support to patients in a permanent vegetative state. The decision was made as part of the verdict in a case involving Aruna Shanbaug, who had been in a Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) until her death in 2015. On 9 March 2018, the Supreme Court of India, passed a historic judgement-law permitting Passive Euthanasia in the country. This judgment was passed in wake of Pinki Virani's plea to lust highest court in December 2009 under the Constitutional provision of “Next Friend”. It is a landmark law which places the power of choice in the hands of the individual, over government, medical or religious control which sees all suffering as “destiny”.
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Aruna's Story is about the rape of a nurse that left her in a coma. The book forms part of a 52-minute documentary, produced by the PSBT, titled 'Passive Euthanasia: Kahaani Karuna Ki'.Theatre director Arvind Gaur scripted and directed it as solo play 'Aruna's Story'. Solo act performed by Lushin Dubey Bitter Chocolate is about child sexual abuse in India.
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The legal status of passive euthanasia, on the other hand, including the withdrawal of nutrition or water, varies across the nations of the world.7 FAM 200 Appendix E: Death with Dignity. US Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual, Volume 7. As India had no law about euthanasia, the Supreme Court's guidelines are law until and unless Parliament passes legislation.
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Voluntary, non-voluntary and involuntary types can be further divided into passive or active variants. Passive euthanasia entails the withholding treatment necessary for the continuance of life. Active euthanasia entails the use of lethal substances or forces (such as administering a lethal injection), and is the more controversial. While some authors consider these terms to be misleading and unhelpful, they are nonetheless commonly used.
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In Japan, where the dominant religion is Shinto, 69% of the religious organisations agree with the act of voluntary passive euthanasia. The corresponding figure was 75% when the family asked for it. In Shinto, the prolongation of life using artificial means is a disgraceful act against life. Views on active euthanasia are mixed, with 25% Shinto and Buddhist organisations in Japan supporting voluntary active euthanasia.
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After the court ruling The Telegraph consulted with Muslim, Hindu, Jain and Christian religious leaders. Though generally against legalising euthanasia, Christians and the Jains thought passive euthanasia was acceptable under some circumstances. Jains and Hindus have the traditional rituals Santhara and Prayopavesa respectively, wherein one fasts unto death. The Jain vow of sallekhanā or santhara, is observed by the Jains only in special circumstances.
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Active euthanasia is illegal throughout the United States. Patients retain the rights to refuse medical treatment and to receive appropriate management of pain at their request (passive euthanasia), even if the patients' choices hasten their deaths. Additionally, futile or disproportionately burdensome treatments, such as life-support machines, may be withdrawn under specified circumstances and, under federal law and most state laws only with the informed consent of the patient or, in the event of the incompetence of the patient, with the informed consent of the legal surrogate. The Supreme Court of the United States has not dealt with "quality of life issues" or "futility issues" and appears to only condone active or passive "euthanasia" (not legally defined) when there is clear and convincing evidence that informed consent to the euthanasia, passive or active, has been obtained from the competent patient or the legal surrogate of the incompetent patient.
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At first instance, Justice Johnson was left to decide the case without any direct precedents to bind nor guide him. The law requires reasoning by analogy (abstraction) of other precedents. He chose primarily Airedale NHS Trust v Bland where it was declared acceptable to remove life support. He ruled separation would not be murder but a case of "passive euthanasia" in which food and hydration would be withdrawn.
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However, on 25 February 2014, a three-judge bench of Supreme Court of India had termed the judgment in the Aruna Shanbaug case to be 'inconsistent in itself' and has referred the issue of euthanasia to its five-judge Constitution bench. And on 23 December 2014, Government of India endorsed and re-validated the Passive Euthanasia judgement-law in a Press Release, after stating in the Rajya Sabha as follows: that The Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in its judgment dated 7.3.2011 [WP (Criminal) No. 115 of 2009], while dismissing the plea for mercy killing in a particular case, laid down comprehensive guidelines to process cases relating to passive euthanasia. Thereafter, the matter of mercy killing was examined in consultation with the Ministry of Law and Justice and it has been decided that since the Hon'ble Supreme Court has already laid down the guidelines, these should be followed and treated as law in such cases.
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The cost of the treatment includes medical resources and their availability. The newborn’s quality of life will depend on whether the treatment is applied, continued or ceased, which can result in passive euthanasia. This can also be classified as a crime under certain laws without the approval of parents. There are ongoing debates about parents' roles in choosing euthanasia for their children, and whether this is considered voluntary euthanasia or non-voluntary euthanasia.
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There is much debate on the topic of euthanasia in Judaic theology, ethics, and general opinion (especially in Israel and the United States). Passive euthanasia was declared legal by Israel's highest court under certain conditions and has reached some level of acceptance. Active euthanasia remains illegal, however the topic is actively under debate with no clear consensus through legal, ethical, theological and spiritual perspectives.Death and Euthanasia in Jewish Law: Essays and Responses.
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35, Issue 7 (2009), pp. 436–439. Drawing on the various ethical, medical and legal considerations as well as on the experiences of the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Oregon, he argues that on some occasions not only passive euthanasia may be allowed but also physician-assisted suicide. People should have the ability to control the time and place of their death. Cohen-Almagor's thesis is that people, as autonomous moral agents, deserve to be treated with dignity.
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Patients who qualify for active or passive euthanasia in South Korea are reserved for the terminally ill with a nonexistent chance of recovery. Patients who have a beneficial reaction to any medications, or are not in a rapidly deteriorating state of health leading to imminent death may not be qualified. Patients must have a confirmation of a registered physician and a doctor to die under dignity, and comatose patients must have the approval of both guardians.
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In 1970, the House of Commons debated the issue. Baroness Wootton introduced a Bill to the Lords in 1976 on the matter of "passive euthanasia".Foreword by the Earl of Listowel to Voluntary Euthanasia: Experts Debate the Right to Die eds. A. B. Downing and Barbara Smoker, , p. 5 On 10 December 1997, a vote was taken in the House of Commons on the issue of introducing a Doctor Assisted Dying Bill, proposed by Labour MP Joe Ashton.
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A court while deciding the "Animal Welfare Board of India vs Nagaraja" case in 2014 mandated that animals are also entitled to the fundamental right to freedom enshrined in the Article 21 of Constitution of India i.e. right to life, personal liberty and the right to die with dignity (passive euthanasia). In another case, a court in Uttarakhand state mandated that animals have the same rights as humans.Birds to holy rivers: A list of everything India considers “legal persons”, Quartz (publication), September 2019.
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Voluntary refusal of food and fluids (VRFF) (also called voluntarily stopping eating and drinking, or VSED) or Patient Refusal of Nutrition and Hydration (PRNH) is bordering on euthanasia. Some authors classify it as a form of passive euthanasia,Patient Refusal of Nutrition and Hydration: Walking the Ever-Finer Line while others treat it separately because it is treated differently from legal point of view and often perceived as a more ethical option. VRFF is sometimes suggested as a legal alternative to euthanasia in jurisdictions disallowing euthanasia.
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Ms B was a competent but paralysed, ventilator-dependent patient, and she won the right to have the ventilator turned off. Although the switching-off had to be performed by a doctor, and this is an act intentionally causing death, the law characterises this as an omission because it amounts simply to a cessation of the ongoing treatment. The doctors’ conduct qualifies as lawful "passive euthanasia". If the particular doctor invited to omit further treatment has conscientious objections, a doctor who will undertake the omission should be sought.
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In Mexico, active euthanasia is illegal but since 7 January 2008 the law allows the terminally ill —or closest relatives, if unconscious— to refuse medication or further medical treatment to extend life (also known as passive euthanasia) in Mexico City, in the central state of Aguascalientes (since 6 April 2009) and, since 1 September 2009, in the Western state of Michoacán. A similar law extending the same provisions at the national level has been approved by the senate and an initiative decriminalizing active euthanasia has entered the same legislative chamber on 13 April 2007.
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The Supreme Court specified two irreversible conditions to permit Passive Euthanasia Law in its 2011 Law: (I) The brain-dead for whom the ventilator can be switched off (II) Those in a Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) for whom the feed can be tapered out and pain-managing palliatives be added, according to laid-down international specifications. The same judgement-law also asked for the scrapping of 309, the code which penalises those who survive suicide-attempts. In December 2014, government of India declared its intention to do so.
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Historically, the euthanasia debate has tended to focus on a number of key concerns. According to euthanasia opponent Ezekiel Emanuel, proponents of euthanasia have presented four main arguments: a) that people have a right to self-determination, and thus should be allowed to choose their own fate; b) assisting a subject to die might be a better choice than requiring that they continue to suffer; c) the distinction between passive euthanasia, which is often permitted, and active euthanasia, which is not substantive (or that the underlying principle–the doctrine of double effect–is unreasonable or unsound); and d) permitting euthanasia will not necessarily lead to unacceptable consequences. Pro-euthanasia activists often point to countries like the Netherlands and Belgium, and states like Oregon, where euthanasia has been legalized, to argue that it is mostly unproblematic. Similarly, Emanuel argues that there are four major arguments presented by opponents of euthanasia: a) not all deaths are painful; b) alternatives, such as cessation of active treatment, combined with the use of effective pain relief, are available; c) the distinction between active and passive euthanasia is morally significant; and d) legalising euthanasia will place society on a slippery slope, which will lead to unacceptable consequences.
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According to a Parametría poll conducted in February 2008, 59% of Mexicans think doctors should have the legal right to end the life of a person suffering from an incurable illness upon a request by the patient and his or her relatives, while 35% disagree. Its main opponents, pro-life activists and Christian churches —particularly the dominant Roman Catholic Church— have strongly lobbied against active euthanasia and promote different bills protecting the right to life "from the moment of conception until natural death." However, regional bills supporting passive euthanasia have been endorsed by several Catholic clergymen, including the archbishops of León and Morelia.
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Vasuki is a father of two children, who is in a permanent vegetative state, after seriously hurt in an accident. Meera his wife, who has been opposing from the beginning the request of "euthanasia" from her husband, having lost any hope to live, at last submits to her husband's persuasion and agrees to apply in the court for passive euthanasia. But, in the media, this matter takes totally a different color and she will be depicted as "a woman set to kill her own husband". Vasu will be denied of his request, by the court as per the existing law.
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In 1999, the state of Texas passed the Advance Directives Act. Under the law, in some situations, Texas hospitals and physicians have the right to withdraw life support measures, such as mechanical respiration, from terminally ill patients when such treatment is considered to be both futile and inappropriate. This is sometimes referred to as "passive euthanasia". In 2005, a six-month-old infant, Sun Hudson, with a uniformly fatal disease thanatophoric dysplasia, was the first patient in which "a United States court has allowed life-sustaining treatment to be withdrawn from a pediatric patient over the objections of the child's parent".
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Currently, Dr Nigel Cox is the only British doctor to have been convicted of attempted euthanasia. He was given a 12-month suspended sentence in 1992. In regard to the principle of double effect, in 1957 Judge Devlin in the trial of Dr John Bodkin Adams ruled that causing death through the administration of lethal drugs to a patient, if the intention is solely to alleviate pain, is not considered murder even if death is a potential or even likely outcome. Passive euthanasia is legal, by way of advance decisions giving patients the right to refuse life saving treatment.
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In court cases regarding animals, the animals have the status of "legal person" and humans have the legal duty to act as "loco parentis" towards animals welfare like a parent has towards the minor children. A court while deciding the "Animal Welfare Board of India vs Nagaraja" case in 2014 mandated that animals are also entitled to the fundamental right to freedom enshrined in the Article 21 of Constitution of India i.e. right to life, personal liberty and the right to die with dignity (passive euthanasia). In another case, a court in Uttarakhand state mandated that animals have the same rights as humans.
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On behalf of Aruna, her friend Pinki Virani, a social activist, filed a petition in the Supreme Court arguing that the "continued existence of Aruna is in violation of her right to live in dignity". The Supreme Court made its decision on 7 March 2011. The court rejected the plea to discontinue Aruna's life support but issued a set of broad guidelines legalising passive euthanasia in India. The Supreme Court's decision to reject the discontinuation of Aruna's life support was based on the fact that the hospital staff who treat and take care of her did not support euthanizing her.
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The National Assembly and The Ministry of Health and Welfare voted in favor of active and passive euthanasia and went into effect since February 2018, and has announced to issue a "Well-Dying" Bill. However, the topic and debate of euthanasia in South Korea sparked for a long time, starting back on 4 December 1997 when a doctor was sent to prison for a major duration for voluntarily cutting life support of a braindead patient who injured himself from a head trauma, upon the request of his wife. This incident is well known in Korea as 'Boramae Hospital Incident' (보라매병원 사건). Another incident that sparked further debate was from the imprisonment of a father who plugged off a respirator for his braindead son.
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Nevertheless, at present, there is a tentative legal framework for implementing euthanasia in Japan. In the case of passive euthanasia, three conditions must be met: # the patient must be suffering from an incurable disease, and in the final stages of the disease from which he/she is unlikely to make a recovery; # the patient must give express consent to stopping treatment, and this consent must be obtained and preserved prior to death. If the patient is not able to give clear consent, their consent may be determined from a pre-written document such as a living will or the testimony of the family; # the patient may be passively euthanized by stopping medical treatment, chemotherapy, dialysis, artificial respiration, blood transfusion, IV drip, etc. For active euthanasia, four conditions must be met: # the patient must be suffering from unbearable physical pain; # death must be inevitable and drawing near; # the patient must give consent.
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