In a corner of Mumbai, an old man and a woman are eagerly waiting for - in fact looking forward to - a visit from the Grim Reaper. Iravati and Narayan Lavate, she is 78 and her husband 87, would have been like any other aged couple but for their petition to the president of India. In it, the Lavates have declared that they are seeking physician-assisted suicide and that - this is the most intriguing bit - keeping them alive forcefully is tantamount to a criminal act.
"We are just tired of living. We can't wait for an ailment to make us bed-bound," said Iravati in an interview. And what is the kind of life that feels like a burden to the Lavates? Here are a few glimpses that bear evidence of both tediousness as well as enduring companionship. Iravati rises early, doing the domestic chores of washing, cleaning and cooking. Her husband helps her sweep their one-room dwelling. Lunch, usually an insipid affair of mashed vegetables, is taken mid-afternoon. As dusk gathers, Iravati listens to Marathi songs on the radio, and dinner is served by 8.30 pm. The aged couple end the day by watching their favourite programme on an old television set. Their daily routine is not dissimilar to that of elderly people. But for the Lavates, each day, the slowness of which is seemingly immeasurable, feels the same.
Has the desire to end their lives been brought about by loneliness? (Over 70,000 men and 1.1 million women above the age of 50 in England, a study had disclosed some years ago, were suffering from severe loneliness. Start-up companies in India are offering a myriad services - care-givers, attendants and even grandchildren on rent - to the elderly who now account for over 8 per cent of the population.) But the Lavates are not lonely. Every Friday, they meet their friends and talk about, among other things, the importance of euthanasia.
The Supreme Court legalized passive euthanasia under exceptional circumstances in 2011. The Lavates, understandably, do not fall under the ambit of this legal provision. What they are pinning their hopes on is the apex court's deliberations on the idea of the 'living will' - a directive issued on the part of an individual, giving his or her consent to dying with dignity, thereby prohibiting the continuation of supportive medical technology to keep him or her alive in a debilitated state. Significantly, a five-judge Constitution bench has apparently suggested that it is exploring the mechanism of legitimizing a living will. (The court is expected to take up the matter this year.)
What the court and, in a way, the Lavates are contending with is the tension embedded in the contract between the State and the sovereign citizen over the right to end life. At the heart of this contentious debate that has pitted political, religious and medical institutions against the individual is the delicate and problematic question concerning the autonomy of choice.
But this is not the only issue that is at stake here. What the Lavates seem to be doing, albeit on a local scale, is generating momentum for a broader debate to change the collective outlook towards a cherished, fundamental ideal - that of a long life. Such a discourse will continue to gather strength, keeping pace with the emergence of ageing societies where people are living longer but have been left without the means to support themselves as the family disintegrates and the welfare State recedes into oblivion.
