'The law has taken all my rights away': on India's conundrum of able-normative death with dignity

• Published in: Oxford University commonwealth law journal Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 69 - 92
• Main Author: Kalra, Kartik
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 02.01.2023
• Subjects: Assisted suicide; Constitutional law; Dignity; disability; Discrimination; Euthanasia; Indian constitutional law; proportionality; substantive equality; Terminally ill; INDIA
• ISSN: 1472-9342; 1757-8469
• DOI: 10.1080/14729342.2023.2234749

This article argues that the exceptionless prohibition on active euthanasia contained in Indian penal law constitutes indirect discrimination against terminally ill persons disabled from committing suicide, and that reasonable accommodation by way of permitting assisted suicide for persons falling within this class is necessary to address such discrimination. While terminally ill persons physically capable of committing suicide may do so without the threat of penal sanction due to the general decriminalisation of the attempt to commit suicide under the Mental Healthcare Act 2017, those who are physically disabled and require assistance are forbidden therefrom due to the exceptionless prohibition under the Indian Penal Code. I argue, therefore, that the current law constitutes both indirect discrimination and a denial of reasonable accommodation, and is incompatible with the constitutional pursuit of substantive equality. I also argue that this incompatibility cannot be saved by a proportionality-backed justification.