Chennai: The Madras High Court appointed a three-member independent committee to suggest experts to examine a nine-year-old boy, whose father had made a plea for the child’s passive euthanasia, and file a report.
A division bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and S Baskaran appointed a neurosurgeon Dr Reginald, paediatrician Dr P Ramachandran and chief medical officer of Central Government Health Scheme Dr Uma Maheswari as committee members and directed them to suggest experts within two weeks.
The issue pertains to a plea of R Thirumeni, whose son Paavendhan is in Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) since birth in 2008.
The Supreme Court had held that fundamental right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution includes the right to die with dignity.
Paavendhan has not only been in a vegetative state since birth but also suffers from epileptic seizures, ranging between 10 and 20 times a day when controlled by medicines.
The maximum number of such attacks he had suffered in a single day is 150, petitioners counsel N Kavitha Rameshwar said.
Thirumeni, who is a tailor, has been spending Rs 10,000 per month towards medical expenses of his son all these years with the hope of getting him back to normal, the counsel said.
Since all the doctors he had consulted till date had concurred that there was absolutely no scope of recovery in such a case as the damage to the brain is total, the petitioner wanted the court to permit him to withdraw all forms of food, nutrition and medicine to his son and thus smoothen his process of dying.