Right To Die with Dignity
Published on 30 Mar 2025
• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released draft guidelines for withdrawing life support for terminally ill patients
• It is largely based on the Supreme Court’s 2018 Common Cause vs Union of India ruling and its 2023 guidelines.
• The draft Ministry guidelines include the right to refuse medical treatments for the patient.
• It states that life-sustaining treatment, like ventilators or feeding tubes, can be withheld if it no longer benefits the patient.
• This is called Foregoing of Life Sustaining Treatments (FLST)
• The draft also recognises Advance Medical Directives which is a written declaration made by a person with decision-making capacity documenting how they would like to be medically treated or not treated should they lose capacity.
• It states active euthanasia is illegal.