Maharashtra sets passive euthanasia boards for private hospitals
The Maharashtra government on Friday issued a directive setting out the framework for primary and secondary medical boards in private hospitals to handle cases involving
The Maharashtra government on Friday issued a directive setting out the framework for primary and secondary medical boards in private hospitals to handle cases involving passive euthanasia and "living wills". The move follows a Supreme Court judgment of March 11, 2026, which said decisions on withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in line with a patient’s advance directive or living will must be examined and approved by designated medical boards. Read Full Story With this, the state has extended to private hospitals a mechanism that had already been put in place for government hospitals through a government resolution issued on November 29, 2024. The public health department said the approval of both a primary and a secondary medical board is mandatory whenever treatment is proposed to be withdrawn in keeping with a patient’s living will.
The government resolution said the Supreme Court, while referring to its Common Cause judgment, had reiterated the need for such approvals in the Harish Rana case. Rana, who had been in a coma since 2013, became the first person in India to be allowed passive euthanasia. The top court permitted the withdrawal of his artificial nutrition, hydration and life support, following which he died at AIIMS-Delhi. Rana was a B.Tech student at Panjab University and had suffered severe head injuries after falling from a fourth-floor balcony in 2013. He remained in a vegetative state for 13 years. Passive euthanasia is the intentional act of allowing a patient to die by withholding or withdrawing life support or treatment necessary for maintaining life.
According to the order, the primary medical board in a private hospital will be constituted by the hospital’s medical director, chief executive officer or medical superintendent. It will comprise the hospital administrator as chairperson, the treating medical expert, a critical care specialist, and a senior physician or surgeon. The secondary medical board will be constituted under the district civil surgeon for hospitals outside Mumbai and Mumbai Suburban districts. In Mumbai and Mumbai Suburban, the medical superintendent of the state-run JJ Hospital will be part of the process. The board will include the hospital’s medical director as chairperson, the treating doctor, two subject experts with more than five years’ experience, an empanelled external specialist nominated by the district civil surgeon, and the district civil surgeon.
The BriefWire