‘Death is a release’: Indian parents win right to grant son a dignified death

The decision in the case of Harish Rana is widely seen as one of the clearest real-world applications of the principle that patients have a right to die with dignity under India’s constitution.

Rana, an engineering student, had been in a vegetative state for the last 13 years after falling from the fourth floor of his hostel in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh.

After emergency treatment, doctors declared him a quadriplegic.

Bedridden and dependent on feeding tubes for survival, his mother Nirmala and father Ashok became his primary carers.

A high court in New Delhi denied the couple permission to withdraw life support in 2024, prompting them to seek legal recourse from the Supreme Court.