BBC News, Mumbai
In 2010, IP Yadev, a surgeon from the southern Indian state of Kerala, is facing one of the most difficult decisions in his life.
He had to decide between the maintenance of his father – a terminal patient with cancer – I live and honor his wish, to express verbally to stop all treatments and stop his suffering.
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“As a son, I felt my duty to do everything I could extend my father’s life. This made him dissatisfied and eventually died alone in the intensive care unit. The last efforts of a doctor to revive him by CPR broke down his Ribs.
Experience, he says, has deeply influenced him and helped him understand the importance of in advance medical directives (AMDS), known as living will.
Living will is a legal document that allows a person over 18 years of age to choose medical care that he would like to get if developing a terminal disease or a state without hope in recovery and cannot make decisions on their own.
For example, they could determine that they do not want to be put on the machines for living in life or insist that they want to give them an appropriate remedy for inflicting pain.
IN 2018The Indian Supreme Court enabled people to make live will and thus select a passive euthanasia, where medical treatment can be withdrawn under strict guidelines to accelerate the death of a person. Active euthanasia – Any act that deliberately helps a person to kill himself – is illegal in the country.
But despite the legal progress, the concept of living will did not actually take off in India. Experts say it has a lot to do with the way the Indians talk, or rather, do not talk about death. Death is often considered a taboo theme and it is believed that every mention of bad luck is considered.
But now the efforts are underway to change that.
In November, Dr. Yadev and his team launched the first Indian program – at the Government Faculty of Medicine in Kollam in Keral – to educate people about living will, offering information in person and on the phone. Volunteers also spend campaigns for consciousness and distribute templates.
Creating a living will requires that family members have open and sincere conversations about death. Despite a certain resistance, activists and institutions take steps to raise consciousness and grow, although careful interest.
Kerala leads the way to these conversations. There are currently countries The best net for palliative careAnd the organizations offered to end life have also started campaigns for the awareness of vibrant will.
In March, About 30 people from the Society for Pain and Palliative Care In the city of Thrisur, he signed a living will. Divacaran, the founder of society, says the gesture is aimed at making the idea more popular among people.
“Most people have never heard of this term, so they have a lot of questions, such as whether such a directive can be abused or will later be able to make changes to their will,” says Mr. Yadev, adding that most of the inquiries came from people in their 50 -Ih and 60s.
“Right now, an educated, middle class uses an object. But with campaigns to raise wide consciousness, we expect it to be demographically expanded,” he says.
According to the Supreme Court’s order, the person must draw the will, sign it in the presence of two witnesses and testifies to a notary or police officer. The will of the will then must be handed over to the guardian of the State Government.
Although the guidelines exist on paper, many state governments are yet to set up mechanisms for their implementation. This is what Dr. Nikhil Datar, a gynecologist from Mumbai City, understood when he earned his life will two years ago, because there was no guardian to whom he could handle him.
So he went to court and this resulted in the Government of the Maharashtra appointed about 400 officials in local bodies in the country to serve as guardians of living will.
In June, The State of Goa conducted the Supreme Court orders Around living wills and a high court judge became the first person in the country to register one.
On Saturday, Was ordered by the Karnataka State District health officers who will appoint people who will serve in the key medical committee needed to confirm live will. [Two medical boards have to certify that a patient meets necessary criteria for the implementation of a living will before medical practitioners can act on it.]
MR Datar also advocates a centralized digital storage for living will, available across the country. He also made his own will on his website as a template. He believes that the will helps prevent problems for both families and doctors when the patient is in a vegetative condition and beyond recovery.
“Very often family members do not want a person to withstand more treatment, but because they cannot take care of the patient at home, they keep them in the hospital. Doctors, bound by medical ethics, cannot retain treatment, so the patient eventually suffers without a way expresses his wishes, “says Mr. Datar.
Living will are not just the choice of passive euthanasia. Dr. Yadev recalls a case in which a person wanted his will to specify that he should put himself on his life support if his condition ever required him.
“He explained that his only child lived abroad and did not want to die until his son met him,” says Mr. Yadev. “You have the freedom to choose how you want to die. This is one of the biggest rights that are available to us, so why not exercise it?” He says.
Health care advocates say that conversations around palliative care are slowly growing in the ground, giving an incentive to live will.
Dr Sushma Bhatnagar of Delhi’s Institute of Medical Sciences All India says the hospital is launching a patient’s education department about vivid will. “Ideally, doctors should talk about life -likes with patients, but there is a gap in communication,” she says, adding that doctors for training for these conversations may help to ensure that a person dies with dignity.
“Through our lives, our choices are colored by the wishes of our loved ones or what society thinks is right,” says Mr. Yadev.
“At least in death, we make decisions that are in our interest and in our entirety.”
