Typically, the person is given an extensive oil-bath early in the morning and subsequently made to drink glasses of tender coconut water which results in kidney failure, high fever, fits, and death within a day or two.
[1][2] This technique may also involve a head massage with cold water, which may lower body temperature sufficiently to cause heart failure.
[3] Although thalaikoothal is illegal in India,[4] the practice has long received covert social acceptance as a form of mercy killing, and people seldom complain to the police.
[3] However, social acceptance may lead to more egregious abuses: the issue gained a higher profile in early 2010, when an 80-year-old man escaped after discovering his intended fate and heard his family members discussing how they were going to "share" his lands, and took refuge in a relative's home.
[3] In 2010, after an exposé in Virudhunagar district the administration set up teams of officers to monitor the senior citizens.