[4] In 2009, activist and writer Pinki Virani filed a petition in Supreme Court of India on behalf of Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse working at the KEM Hospital in Mumbai on 27 November 1973 when she was sexually assaulted by a sweeper.
[6] Despite rejecting this particular claim, the Supreme Court legalised passive euthanasia, and noted that it included the withdrawing of treatment or food that would allow the patient to live.
[9]The Five-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court was tasked with deciding whether Article 21 of the Constitution includes in its ambit the right to die with dignity by means of executing a living wills/advance directives.
[11] Before passive euthanasia became practicable in India, there existed the possibility of signing a leaving against medical advice (LAMA) which transferred from the physician to the patient the full responsibility for the discontinuation of his living therapies.
[5] In January 2023, the Supreme Court modified its guidelines in the Common Cause judgment, streamlining the process of preparing a valid advance medical directive.
[14] Some members of India's medical establishment were skeptical about euthanasia due to the country's weak rule of law and the large gap between the rich and the poor, which might lead to the exploitation of the elderly by their families.