INDIA'S TOP COURT

NEW DELHI : India's top court permits passive euthanasia in landmark judgment.

Individuals have a right to die with dignity, India's Supreme Court said on Friday in a landmark verdict that permits the removal life support system for the terminally ill or those in incurable comas.

Passive euthanasia, as it is called, will apply only to terminally ill person with no hope of recovery, a  panel of five judges said.

Active euthanasia, by administering a lethal injection, continues to be illegal in India.

When the sanctity of life was destroyed, said a panel of five judges head by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, ''Should we allow them to cross the door and meet death with dignity?

For some, even their death could be moment of celebration.

The court also permitted individual to decide against artificial life support, should the need arise, by creating a ''living will''.

The decision makes it legal for the terminally ill to decide against using life support systems to continue living, and frees the doctors and families of those who slip into incurable comas to halt such measures, in patients best interest.

A national debate over the legalisation of euthanasia was sparked off by the death in 2015 of a 60 year old nurse, Aruna Shanbaug who had survived in a come for more than 40 years after she was sexually assaulted.

''This is an important historic decision, which clears the air,'' said Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

[Agencies]