BENGALURU: In a historic move, Karnataka govt, complying with a Supreme Court ruling, has approved the setting up of boards in hospitals and districts to certify the 'right to die with dignity' for terminally ill patients with no hope of recovery or in a persistent vegetative state and no longer benefiting from life-sustaining treatment.
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The move comes in the wake of Supreme Court's landmark judgment in Jan 2023 on the withholding or withdrawing of life-sustaining treatment. An expert said Karnataka is the first state to lay out such a legal framework, which will require a magistrate's approval.
In a formal order on Thursday, the state govt notified that any neurologist, neurosurgeon, surgeon, anaesthetist or intensivist who has been approved by the appropriate authority under the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994, would be deemed to have been nominated by the district health officer (DHO) as a member of secondary boards of medical experts to certify such deaths.
Harsh Gupta, principal secretary, health and family welfare department, said: "The move requires initial approval by the treating physician or specialist doctor. Subsequently, the hospitals where such patients are being treated must set up primary board comprising three registered medical practitioners each. After the clearance by the primary board, the secondary board examines and gives approval after obtaining the consent of the patient's family."
The decisions of the board will be submitted to the Judicial Magistrate First Class for final legal approval and the same will be sent to the registrar of the high court for documentation, Gupta explained.
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