Retired prof couple execute living will, ‘want to die with dignity’

mangaloretoday.com/ yahoo

Chandigarh, Dec 21: In a first, a retired professor couple from Chandigarh have executed a living will (advance directive) in the Chandigarh district court. The living will or advance directive will let the couple state their wishes for the end-of-life medical care in case they become unable to communicate their decisions, and the judicial officer certifies it.

Prof D N Jauhar, 71, and his wife Prof Adarsh Jauhar, 63, moved the advance directive in the court of Sanjay, Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMIC), who executed it after being designated by the District and Sessions Judge Chandigarh, following the directions of the Supreme Court.

Professor D N Jauhar is the former vice-chancellor of Dr B R Ambedkar University (formerly known as Agra University) and he is also the former chairman of Panjab University Law Department. His wife Professor Adarsh Jauhar has retired as head of department of Botany at Post-Graduate Government College, Sector 11, Chandigarh.

Speaking to Chandigarh Newsline, Professor D N Jauhar said since March 2018, passive euthanasia has been legal in India under strict guidelines after a Supreme Court ruling of March 2018, allowing passive euthanasia. The court observed that individuals have the right to die with dignity under strict guidelines as patients must give their consent through a living will, and must be either terminally ill or in a vegetative state.

Prof D N Jauhar said that it took him around nine months to draft the living will.

Asked why he moved a petition in the court for living will, Prof D N Jauhar said "I am an academic. One of my old students did a thesis in 1992, wherein we argued passive euthanasia. People would never know it, and so it is a academic exercise too."

Giving three reasons for filing the living will in the court, Prof D N Jauhar said, "Right to live with dignity includes right to die with dignity as well as prescribed under Article 21 of the Constitution. Why should I be kept in misery and dragged on, if I am terminally ill and have become virtually a vegetable."

The second reason, Prof D N Jauhar said, was that "body is of soil, and then let the soil be utilised somewhere, and thirdly me and wife want to do it, so that our body can be used for research. We will donate our body soon".

Asked if he was suffering from any illness, Jauhar said, "I am fighting fit and an active academic person, but I am doing it as my right to die with dignity. It is a collective decision. Accordingly, we came here and recorded our submission in the court today. "

Prof D N Jauhar said that the living will becomes operative as per the Supreme Court directions, when the person who has executed will become terminally ill and is put on support system. The hospital will then constitute a medical board consisting of specialised doctors and if that board certifies that he is terminally ill then that board will send the report to the magistrate or the district collector. The new medical board having specialised doctors will re-examine the report made by hospital medical board, and if the second medical board endorses the report, then the life supporting system of terminally ill person is withdrawn. However, if there is difference in the reports of the two medical boards, then the matter goes to the High Court for the final order.