72 Mumbaikars have filed their living will with civic officials

Mumbai: Seventy-two Mumbaikars have filed their living will with civic officials so far, according to BMC public health department. A living will is a written, legal document that provides instructions for medical care, or for the termination of medical support, in certain circumstances."These 72 living wills have been submitted to the appropriate officials in our various ward offices,'' BMC executive health officer Dr Daksha Shah said on Thursday. There is a surge in interest in living wills following the death of Harish Rana, India's first passive euthanasia case, in Delhi.However, even two and a half years after the Supreme Court simplified guidelines for passive euthanasia, there is still a lack of clarity over how these living wills will be processed and handled at the state or corporation level. City gynaecologist Dr Nikhil Datar, who was the first to file a living will in Feb 2023, said that the state govt's work on digitising living wills for online registration is still incomplete.In 2024, the Maharashtra govt appointed custodians in all civic bodies to receive and safely keep the living will documents of citizens. There are 417 custodians across municipal corporations and other local bodies. These custodians have to safekeep the advanced medical directives or living wills. "After I filed a petition in the high court in this regard, the state said that it would complete digitisation of the living will process within three months. The deadline was July 2025, but the process is incomplete,'' said the doctor.A senior civic official said that state-level guidelines are still trickling in. "We need uniformity in the guidelines across the country. What if a person who has filed a living will in Mumbai travels to another state and the provisions have to be implemented?'' said the official.