Harish Rana, India's first person to be allowed passive euthanasia, dies at AIIMS Delhi: Report
HARISH Rana, India's first person to be allowed passive euthanasia, died at AIIMS Delhi, sources told news agency PTI on Tuesday.
On 11 March 2026, the Supreme Court allowed the withdrawal of medical treatment to 32-year-old Harish Rana from Ghaziabad, who had been in a vegetative state for the last 13 years with negligible hope of recovery.
Harish Rana's father, Ashok Rana, told ANI, "We had been fighting for this. Which parents would want this for their son? We had been pursuing this case for the last three years. He will be taken to AIIMS. He used to be a topper at Panjab University."
Passive euthanasia refers to the withdrawal or withholding of life-sustaining treatment to allow a patient with no reasonable prospect of recovery to die naturally.
The Harish Rana case
In its ruling on 11 March, the Supreme Court had directed AIIMS Delhi to admit Rana and provide all facilities for carrying out the exercise of withdrawing the life support system.
A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Vishwanathan allowed the withdrawal of clinically assisted nutrition and hydration (CANH) for Harish Rana, who has remained in a vegetative state since suffering an accidental fall from a building in 2013.
After the Supreme Court's verdict, Advocate Manish Jain said that under Article 21, the court granted Rana the right to euthanasia.
Informing about the next course of action, the advocate had told ANI on 11 March that “within a week, [Rana] will be transferred to AIIMS, where all life-support tubes will be removed, allowing him to pass away naturally without further medical intervention.”
The advocate said the decision followed the 2018 Common Cause guidelines, which set out how individuals in a palliative state with complete immobility should be treated.
“While passive euthanasia is more common worldwide, this ruling marks a small but significant step in India,” he added, while informing that the Supreme Court “directed all state Chief Medical Officers to establish primary and secondary boards for euthanasia and to report regularly to their ministries.”
Reacting to the Supreme Court's order, IMA president Anil Nayak had told ANI, “... The decision was taken on humanitarian grounds, as the patient, Harish Rana, had been suffering and struggling with this physical disability for the past 13 years following a serious head injury...”
He said a policy should also be introduced in this regard for any future cases, "as such situations place both an economic and mental burden on the family..."
2018 Common Cause judgment
The Supreme Court's order allowing passive euthanasia is in line with the court's 2018 Common Cause judgment, which was modified in 2023 and recognised the fundamental right to die with dignity.
In the 2018 judgement, a constitution bench had recognised passive euthanasia and the right to die with dignity as a fundamental right under Article 21. The court had held that passive euthanasia could be carried out using "Advance Medical Directives".
On 24 January 2023, a five-judge Constitution bench modified the 2018 guidelines to ease the process of granting passive euthanasia to terminally ill patients. A primary and a secondary medical board will have to be formed for an expert opinion on the withdrawal of artificial life support for a patient in a vegetative state, the guidelines stated.
