08 March,2011 06:39 AM IST | | Priyanka Vora
Jubilant nurses placed a grain of sugar on Aruna Shanbaug's tongue, while celebrating the Supreme Court's rejection of euthanasia plea
Moments after the Supreme Court rejected the mercy killing plea made on behalf of Aruna Shanbaug, the debate on euthanasia resurfaced.
The nurses of KEM Hospital rejoice after the Supreme Court judgment
However, for the medical staff of KEM Hospital where the nurse has remained in a vegetative state for the last 38 years, the apex court's ruling was a celebratory moment.
When the news reached the ears of the nurses at ward No 4 Shanbaug's homeu00a0 for the last 37 years they placed a grain of sugar on Shanbaug's tongue to mark the moment.
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"Mooh meetha karna hi padega. She has won back her life," said 50-year-old Reema Pawar.
New guests
While nurses celebrated, they were shocked when Shanbuag had some visitors bearing some gifts. Noornisa Waghela (70), and Raksha (35) reached the hospital to congratulate Aruna and the nurses for their victory.
Waghela distributed sweets in the hospital and gave a peacock blue shawl to the nurses.
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Surprised at Waghela's generosity, Neha Kochrekar, head of ward No 4, said, "In all these years, we have never seen this woman. We were astonished that someone had come to meet Aruna. She (Waghela) told us that she had been reading about Aruna and wanted her to live and had come to distribute sweets to celebrate the judgment."
Soon after Waghela left, Raksha entered the ward searching for the nurses who had taken care of Shanbaug.
Nurses said that Raksha wanted to donate something to the hospital. "We told her to meet the matron. We were so happy that other people also wanted Aruna to live," added Kochrekar.
Dr Sanjay Oak, Dean, KEM Hospital, too rejoiced the judgment. "We are just satisfied that we will have Aruna with us. I had visited her on Friday and when I called her name she responded. I was anxious about the judgment but wasn't nervous.
We were praying that court will decide in our favour and that has happened."
And although the court rejected the plea, the judges upheld the decision that passive euthanasia could be permissible in exceptional circumstances. However, judges also added that Aruna was not a case of passive euthanasia.
Commenting on Shanbaug's condition, matron Archana Jadhav said she had recently suffered from malaria causing her condition to deteriorate. "She was critical but now she is stable and we are giving her multi-vitamin supplements," she said while feeding sweets to her fellow nurses.
