In a first, a couple in Chandigarh has registered a “living will”, which means that they have given permission for euthanasia in case they become terminally ill. In the living will, professor D N Jauhar and his wife Professor Adarsh Jaughar has given the consent to die in dignity.
The professor couple are the first to give the “living will” after the Supreme Court judgement in 2018 gave legal sanction to passive euthanasia and permitted “living wills”. The couple after submitting the “living will” in a local court in Chandigarh said that they had decided as they had a right to die in dignity as they have a right to live.
Jauhar is a former chairman of the Punjab University Law Department and Adarsh was the head of the department of Botany at the Government College in Chandigarh. They said that the decision was also endorsed by the family members.
They said that in Article 21 of the constitution, right to live with dignity also include the right to die with dignity. The professor was also of the opinion that there was no need to be in misery if he was terminally ill and have become virtually a vegetable. He also said that he wanted to donate his body for research.
