Every now and then, the controversial topic of ‘Euthanasia’ also known as ‘mercy killing’ makes its presence felt by appearing as Newspaper headlines. In most cases it’s the people suffering (or their family members) who are at the mercy of others inorder to end their own life. A life which they consider to be nothing but a painful process, where are so-called advanced medical science is of no use and the only feasible option is ‘death’.

Last year December we heard the story about a young couple who had requested the doctors at Wadia Hospital to have their one-year old boy’s life terminated medically.

Thankfully, Dr Santosh Karmarkar from Lilavati Hospital on Thursday offered to operate upon the boy free of cost and also take care of all the post-operative expenses.

This time round we have not one person but an entire family of four, who have filed a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking permission for euthanasia.

Reported in TOI:

In a move that speaks of untold despair, a family of four living in Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, has filed a petition in the supreme court, seeking permission for euthanasia or mercy killing.

Two of its members–30-year-oldKhurshida and 26-yearold Mehfooz Ahmed–suffer from limb girdle muscular dystrophy, an incurable condition that has prompted the petition.

Khurshida and Mehfooz’s parents, Mukhtar Ahmed Shaikh and Sufiya Banoo, also want to end their lives along with their children because of their inability to bear the financial burden the disease is placing on them.

Mukhtar, who recently filed the petition through a social worker, is an asthmatic while his wife is a uterine cancer survivor. The family earns barely Rs 2,200 per month, an income that comes from the odd jobs Mukhtar does for a private firm in Matunga.

“Even transporting my grown-up children from our home to JJ Hospital, the only centre in the city that has a support programme for such patients, costs Rs 400 each time,” he says.

“The doctors at JJ have given up, but I still take them there periodically, incurring expenditure that I cannot effort. I have approached several organisations for help but in vain.

“Mukhtar’s younger son, 19-year-old Khalid, who is healthy, stays home to help the older siblings with the daily chores. Mukhtar’s petition states, “In these circumstances, I have no alternative but to approach the SC with folded hands.

I have no way to live in this world, so please help me with medical assistance or grant me mercy killing.” Mukhtar’s house is in the congested Rajiv Gandhi Nagar slum in the transit camp at Dharavi; the 10×9 sq ft dwelling makes for a cramped existence for the five-member family.

“Mehfooz and Khurshida cannot move on their own, and are dependent on us for everything. Their daily ablutions are carried out in a makeshift bathroom and I carry the faeces out and throw it in the public toilet,” says the father, who started suffering from asthma after a bout of tuberculosis.

It’s never an easy decision for the court, doctors or family members to make. We are burdened by the suffering of the concerned people but on the other hand ‘death’ is what they are pleading for.

Don’t know what the court’s stand would be in this case, but whatever may be the final outcome, hopefully it will lift Mukhtar’s family from their daily misery.