Life with dignity; death with dignity.
In a renewed effort to gain for all of us the right to live with dignity even with disease (and to die with dignity too), a group of people got together on 18 September 2016 at Changampuzha Mandiram, Sahitya Academy, Thrissur to discuss Government of India’s draft law for protection of terminally ill patients and medical practitioners. There was active participation in the proceedings by patients, family members, doctors and several interested others.
The event was organised under the joint auspices of the Pain and Palliative Care Society Thrissur, Pallium India and Indian Association of Palliative Care (Kerala).
The participants demanded that the draft law must be amended to ensure the following:
1. Any advance directive (living will) made by a competent person in accordance with the provisions laid down in this law must be binding on the medical system.
2. Those who decide against artificial life support must be offered palliative care by the medical system, and
3. The provision in the draft law for having to approach the high court for permission to withdraw life support must be removed in favour of more practical provision for decision by institutional ethics committee.
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