NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court is likely to examine next week a plea filed by a woman seeking to stop her friend from travelling abroad to undergo euthanasia on account of a debilitating inflammatory disease. In her plea, the 49-year-old woman has sought a direction from the court to the Centre not to grant “emigration clearance” to her friend, in his late 40s and suffering from myalgic encephalomyelitis. The woman claims he is travelling to Switzerland for physician-assisted suicide. Myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome is a “complex, debilitating, long-term neuro inflammatory disease” and the petitioner’s friend, who had the first symptom in 2014, is “now completely bed-bound” and can only “walk a few steps inside home”, the plea states, seeking the court’s intervention. The petitioner has stated that her friend was earlier receiving treatment at AIIMS, but the same could not continue during the pandemic due to “donor availability issues”. The plea contends, “There are no financial constraints for providing respondent no. 3 (petitioner’s friend) with better treatment within India or abroad. But he is now adamant on his decision to go for euthanasia, which also affects the life of aged parents miserably. It is humbly submitted that there still persists a ray of hope for the betterment of his condition.” The petitioner has also sought a direction to the Centre to constitute a medical board to examine the condition of her friend who has obtained the requisite visa for Switzerland on the “false” pretext of getting treatment and also provide necessary medical assistance to him. Seeking the no-emigration clearance directive to the Centre, the plea claims that his friend has made false claims before Indian as well as foreign authorities for getting travel permissions. She has also sought a directive to the Union health ministry for the medical board and necessary medical assistance.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/plea-to-stop-mans-trip-to-switzerland-for-euthanasia/articleshow/93530300.cms
