Table of Contents
I. Abstract 2
II. Introduction 2
III. The Legal and Social Position in India 5 III.1 Religious Views on the issue of euthanasia 7
IV. Legal and Social Position in Canada 8
V. Comparative Analysis 13
VI. Stance of the medical practitioners as per the medical ethics 15
VII. Conclusion 15
Abstract
It is often said that every person has a right to life and that too a right to live with dignity. There have been a number of scholars who have argued that the right to life which has been granted to a person would be useless if certain rights ancillary to the right are not being provided to the individual. A few of these rights include the right to food, right to clean and hygienic environment, right to personal liberty, right to make a choice and right to live a dignified life. But on analysing the right with a liberal view and expanding the scope of the ‘right to life’ a little the question that arises is whether the ‘right to life’ include a ‘right to die’?
As per a layman’s understanding, the question that whether you want to live or die is a personal decision. The Constitution or any other Law should not dictate that whether we should exercise that right of ours or not. This is because of the prime reason that because the Government, who is making the Law, does not know the problems with an individual’s life therefore it cannot be competent enough to make a decision. However, this is not all this simple. A fair and considered evaluation has to be made before vesting anyone with any such right as such a right could be potentially misused and thereby the sanctity of life could be harmed. Therefore, certain restrictions need to be there on the right to life in order for a smooth and proper functioning of the society.
But, now the question arises that what could
