Kerala: Breaking the taboo around ‘living wills’ in India

So he went to court and it resulted in the Maharashtra government appointing about 400 officials across local bodies in the state to serve as custodians of living wills.

In June, Goa state implemented the Supreme Court’s orders, external around living wills and a high court judge became the first person in the state to register one.

On Saturday, Karnataka state ordered, external district health officers to nominate people to serve on a key medical board required to certify living wills. [Two medical boards have to certify that a patient meets necessary criteria for the implementation of a living will before medical practitioners can act on it.]

Mr Datar is also advocating for a centralised digital repository for living wills, accessible nationwide. He has also made his own will available for free on his website as a template. He believes a will helps prevent problems for both families and doctors when a patient is in a vegetative state and beyond recovery.

“Very often, family members don’t want the person to endure more treatment but because they can’t care for the patient at home, they keep them in the hospital. Doctors, bound by medical ethics, can’t withhold treatment, so the patient ends up suffering with no way to express their wishes,” Mr Datar says.

Living wills aren’t just about choosing passive euthanasia. Dr Yadev recalls a case where a person wanted his will to specify that he should be placed on life support if his condition ever required it.

“He explained that his only child was living abroad and that he didn’t want to die until his son got to meet him,” Mr Yadev says. “You have the freedom to choose how you want to die. It is one of the greatest rights available to us, so why not exercise it?” he says.

Healthcare advocates say that conversations around palliative care are slowly growing in the country, giving an impetus to living wills.

Dr Sushma Bhatnagar of Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences says the hospital is launching a department to educate patients about living wills. “Ideally, doctors should discuss living wills with patients, but there’s a communication gap,” she says, adding that training doctors for these conversations can help ensure a person dies with dignity.

“Throughout our lives, our choices are coloured by our loved ones’ wishes or by what society thinks is right,” Mr Yadev says.

“At least in death, let us make choices that are in our interest and fully our own.”