STATEMENT OF FACTS

a. In an incident, Mrs. Swagatha from the province of coastal

Pradesh had filed an application seeking for permission from the
High court to end the life of her child who is suffering with inherited
blood disorder called Thalassemia. Mrs. Swagatha is working as a
teaching professional in one of the reputed central government
institution in Union of Sindiya. She got married and blessed with a
baby girl and the baby was born with good health. After three
conditions, when they consulted the doctors they have advised her to
consult the specialist to take expect advice. Mrs swagatha consulted
the famous doctors and they declared that the baby was born with
abnormal form of haemoglobin disorder which result in excessive
destruction of blood cells which leads to anemia. Anemia is a
condition in which the body does not have sufficient normal red
blood cells. Further the doctors have informed Mrs. Swagatha that
her baby is suffering with Thalassemia major which is caused either
by a genetic mutation or a deletion of certain key gene fragments,
which is inherited from either of the parents, and the news shattered
Mrs. Swagatha and her spouse. They spent all their savings to save
the child, but the disease is such that there is no cure except the
regular blood transfusion under the guidance of the expert doctors or
bone marrow transplantation. Mrs. Swagatha and her spouse could
not afford to go for bone marrow transplantation, which is very
expensive and needs a donor who should be either sibling or close
relative which they could not procure. Mrs. Swagatha and her
spouse decided that they cannot afford the treatment and went for
regular blood transfusion.

The multiple blood transfusions for every four weeks left the
patient (one year old baby) in traumatic conditions. The blood
transfusions resulted in overload of iron in the body which has to be
treated by Chelation therapy by medication through deferoxamine
via daily injections which makes long term use more difficult. Few
months later the baby’s health deteriorated, she developed the health
complications due the over load of iron deposits which was caused
by the frequent blood transfusion. The treatment has affected the
health of baby adversely and she was admitted in intensive care unit
of the hospital and doctors have advised Mrs. Swagatha that the
condition of the baby will remain critical and they cannot intervene
further except to prolong the treatment. The prolonged treatment
caused severe trauma on the health of Mrs swagatha and also their
finances. Further, the doctors have advised that the chances of
survival of the child are minimal. In such scenario, Mrs. swagatha
and her spouse decided to smoothen the process to end the life of
their child instead of giving traumatic treatment. Mrs. Swagatha and
her spouse decided to file an application for the permission to end
the life of child. They were shattered by looking at the inhuman
condition of the child and decided to pave the way for her to leave
this world in peace with human dignity rather than prolonged
suffering with inhuman conditions.

b. In the high court of Deccan Land, this is one of the High Courts in
the Union of Sidiya, an application was filed by Mr. Guna Sankalpa
seeking the judicial intervention to end his life along with his
spouse. Mr. Guna Sankalpa is a retired government employee of
Union of Sindiya and he has two daughters and a son who were
married a decade ago. Mr. Guna Sankalpa during his life time has
earned propertied and money which was sufficient for their life. All
these properties and money were given to their children. Mr. Guna
Sankalpa and his spouse are living solely by their retirement pension
benefits and they were neglected by their children. Unfortunately,
both were suffering with chronic kidney disease and their meagre
pension is not supporting for their medical treatment and their living.
Having suffered with deterioration of health, they have approached
the children to support their medical treatment, but they have
received ill-treatment from their children and became destitute. The
couple did not find an alternative means and approached local police
to do some justice to them. The police official have given patient
hearing and lodged criminal complaint against their children and
summoned to the local police station, he station house officer gave
counselling to the children but it proved to be a futile exercise.
Moreover, the children responded to the police that their parents
have seen brighter side of their life and they have reached the stage
where there is no requirement for them to spare rather waste money
for their medical treatment. Having heard the response from their
children the couple attempted to commit suicide, but were saved by
police and admitted to the local hospital with deteriorating health
condition and humiliation. Further, they decided that to seek help of
the state to end their life with the judicial intervention and filed an
application to the High Court.

Along with the above application several other petitions were

filled in various High Courts in Union of Sindiya for seeking the
judicial intervention to facilitate to end their life. These incidents
were reported in local newspapers. Responding to the news the
Deccan Land based NGO by the name “Citizens’ Union for Human
Rights” filed a PIL in the Supreme Court of Union of Sindiya. The
court after recording the preliminary observations, referred the
matter to the Constitutional Bench and posted the matter for hearing.
The basic issues which have drawn the concern of the Supreme
Court in the said writ petitions are: