Does right to life includes right to die?
Does right to life includes right to die?
Right to life is the term which can be given a wide and fluid meaning and we have seen that it has a very wide scope. In this project we will try to see that do right to life includes right to die as well or not and we will go through the argument both in favor and against of the right to die and try to find out which is true in context of Indian constitution.
There is mainly two set of reasons given against any person for not giving him the right to die:
(1) On the basis of moral and religious grounds
(2) On the basis of social and economic grounds.
Right to life as given under Article 21 can be said to bring in its trial the right not to live a forced life. Though the negative aspect may not be inferable on the analogy of the rights conferred by different clauses of Article 19(freedom of speech and expression includes freedom not to speak, Freedom of association and movement includes freedom not to form or take part in any association, freedom of business includes freedom not do business) so in the same way right to life will include the right not to live or terminate the life.
Therefore through thisArticle, I have tried to take the broad view of right to die and I have not restricted my approach towards right to die just anyone form here mentioned: suicide, euthanasia, mercy killing, and physician assisted suicide.
In the case of Maruti shripati Dubal v. State of Maharashtrait was held that right to life of which Article 21 speaks can be said to bring in its trail the right not to live a forced life. There is nothing unnatural about the desire to die and hence with the right to die whatever the circumstances which induce to die. Whatever the circumstances which induce a person to end or terminate his or her life, then act of termination of life is the act of the individual. it is no less his than his act of living .One may refuse to live if his life be not according to the person concerned worth living or if the richness and fullness of the life were not to demand living further. One may rightly think that having achieved all worldly pleasures or happiness, he has to achieve beyond his life. This desire for communion with god may very rightly lead even a very healthy mind to think that he would forego his right to live and would rather choose not to live. And in any case a person cannot be forced to enjoy right to life.
Law commission in its recommendation in the 42nd Report (1971) also recommended removing the section 309 of IPC as it violates Article 21 of the Indian constitution.
There can be various causes which lead people to ask for the right to die. These being mental diseases and imbalances ,unbearable physical ailments, affection by socially dreaded diseases,
decrepit physical condition disabling the person from taking normal care of the body and performing the normal chores , the loss of all senses and desire for the pleasure of any of the senses, extremely cruel or unbearable conditions of life making it painful to live, a sense of shame or disgrace or a need to defend ones honour or a sheer loss of the interest in life or disenchantment with it or a sense of fulfillment of the purpose for which one was born with nothing more left to do or to be achieved and a genuine urge to quit the world at proper moment.
Even if a person takes his life, he is taking his own life, and not the life of anyone else and One's life, one' body with all his limbs are certainly one's property and he is the sole master of it. He should have the freedom to dispose it off as and when he desires. Even at present the relevant statues permit donation by individual of certain parts of his body under certain conditions, thereby recognizing the right of the individuals to deal with his body as he chooses.
John Stuart Mill in his famous Essay on Liberty says that the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. Even his own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do so or forbear because it will be better for him to do so the only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns (harm) others. In part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right absolute over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.so this principle favors the view that every individual has right to die because he is sovereign in his actions which concern only him and does not harm other.
In the American case of Munn v. Illinois it was observed that:-
The Term life meant something more than mere animal existence the inhibition against its deprivation extends to all these limits and faculties by which life is enjoyed.
It is now a well settled that the right to life guaranteed by Article 21 of the constitution of our constitution does not include the right to die. The court held that Article 21 is a provision guaranteeing protection of life and personal liberty and by no stretch of the imagination can extinction of life be read into it. To give meaning and concept to the word life' in Article 21, it has been construed as life with human dignity. Any aspect of life which makes it dignified may be read onto it but not that which extinguishes it and is, therefore, inconsistent with the continued existence of life resulting in effacing the right itself.
The right to life including the right to live with human dignity would mean the existence of such a right up to end of natural life. This also included the right to a dignified procedure of death including a dignified procedure of death. Other words, this may include the right of a dying man to also die with dignity when his life is ebbing out. But the right to die with dignity at the end of life is not to be confused or equaled with the right to die an unnatural death curtailing the natural span of life
After going through the cases of both the U.K AND Canada, we have seen that right to life does not include the right to die in it. And our comparative analysis had proved that the concept of right to life does not include right to die in it.
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