Corneas and heart valves of Harish Rana, the first person to die through passive euthanasia in India, continue to live on as his family donated these organs after his death on withdrawal of life support.
Harish died on March 24 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Palliative Care Unit here after being shifted there following the Supreme Court’s March 11 verdict. After keeping him in palliative care for nearly 10 days, his life-sustaining treatment was withdrawn.
The Supreme Court has praised his family for donating his corneas and heart valves for other human beings.
“Harish left this mortal world on his own terms, surrounded by love and compassion. Even in the face of their own loss, his family chose generosity through the selfless decision to donate his corneas and heart valves. This way, his life continues in others. His legacy will live on through the lives of those he saved,” a Bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice KV Viswanathan said.
“His peaceful departure from the clasp of tubes and machines reflects dignity in both life and death. It also serves as a reminder that medicine has its limits, and that prolonging life in ways a person would not choose for themselves is not always true care. Allowing someone to pass on their own terms and alleviating their suffering affirms their dignity in its truest sense,” it said.
In a historic verdict, the Supreme Court on March 11 allowed the first-ever passive euthanasia in India to end the life of 32-year-old Harish Rama who had been in a vegetative state since 2013 after falling from a building.
“Our decision today does not neatly fit within logic and reason alone. It sits in a space between love, loss, medicine and mercy…It is allowing nature to take its course when medicine can only delay the inevitable because survival is not always the same as living,” the Bench had said.
The top court’s verdict had come on a petition filed by his father Ashok Rana seeking permission to remove all life-sustaining treatment being given to his son.
It ordered withdrawal of Clinically Assisted Nutrition and Hydration (CANH) to Harish Rana in terms of its 2018 judgment in the Common Cause case (as modified in 2023) which recognised the fundamental right to die with dignity.
The Bench expressed gratitude to the AIIMS Director, doctors and nurses who attended to Harish in his final days, noting that the medical team ensured that he underwent minimal suffering and passed away peacefully.
It thanked amicus curiae Rashmi Nandakumar and her team and Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati and her team for extending full cooperation throughout the proceedings.
The Bench asked Bhati to file a compliance report by July 22, 2026, when the matter will be taken up to consider further direction requiring high courts to ensure that Judicial Magistrates received hospital intimations in passive euthanasia cases where medical boards unanimously approved withdrawal or withholding of life support.
