India, March 23 -- The judgment delivered by the Supreme Court on March 12, 2026, in the Harish Rana case (Harish Rana v. Union of India) once again strongly reaffirms the Court's position that the right to die with dignity is included within the scope of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which guarantees the right to live with dignity. Although the Court had earlier issued guidelines regarding passive euthanasia, this ruling may be regarded as one of the first major decisions in which those guidelines have been practically applied.

The English term euthanasia is commonly translated into Malayalam as day?vadham ("mercy killing"). The word derives from the Greek eu (good) and thanatos (death). However, in discussions concerning the...