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India’s Terri Schiavo case?

On the European Life Network blog, Pat Buckley has an interesting post about a case in India that raises some of the same issues presented in the Terri Schiavo case. http://europeanlifenetwork.blogspot.com/2011/02/could-this-be-indias-terry-schiavo-case.html

The case involves Aruna Shanbaug who has been seriously disabled since 1973. One interesting twist is that the effort to have Ms. Shanbaug’s feeding halted comes from a writer who has written a book about Ms. Shanbaug. The writer contends that Aruna’s quality of life falls below that guaranteed by the Indian Constitution.  The Indian Supreme Court has ordered a 3 member panel to examine Aruna’s condition.

The hospital [KEM]has opposed the effort to halt Aruna’s feeding. According to an article in The Independent on the case: 

“Officials at KEM have denounced …[the writer’s] claims, insisting Ms Shanbaug is not in as dire a condition as the writer suggests. Dr Sanjay Oak, the dean of KEM, told Mumbai’s DNA newspaper: ‘She means a lot to KEM. She is on a liquid diet and loves listening to music. We have never subjected her to intravenous food or fed her via a tube. When those looking after her do not have a problem, I don’t understand why a party who has nothing to do with her needs to worry.’ He added: ‘We have no moral right to terminate her life. I am against euthanasia for Shanbaug.’ ”

Richard M.

Richard Myers

Richard S. Myers, the Vice-President of UFL, is Professor of Law at Ave Maria School of Law, where he teaches Antitrust, Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Constitutional Law, and Religious Freedom. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Kenyon College and earned his law degree at Notre Dame, where he won the law school's highest academic prize. He began his legal career by clerking for Judge John F. Kilkenny of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Professor Myers also worked for Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in Washington, D.C. He taught at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law before joining the Ave Maria faculty. He is a co-editor of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Natural Law Tradition: Contemporary Perspectives (Catholic University of American Press, 2004) and a co-editor of Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy (Scarecrow Press, 2007). He has also published extensively on constitutional law in law reviews and also testified before Congressional and state legislative hearings on life issues. Married to Mollie Murphy, who is also on the faculty at Ave Maria School of Law, they are the proud parents of six children - Michael, Patrick, Clare, Kathleen, Matthew, and Andrew. http://www.avemarialaw.edu/index.cfm?event=faculty.bio&pid=11705E7D4E0111010366