The Right to Die with Dignity: Deprivation, Denial, and Despair of Elderly at the End of Life
摘要
India’s persistent low ranks in different international surveys confirm that aging and dying is a tragedy of sorts in the country. Although the United Nations Human Rights Council declares access to palliative care as a human right, India seems to be reluctant to address the issue seriously. Apart from “patchy” evidence of having few palliative centers and hospices, mostly in, southern states, palliative and end-of-life care largely disintegrated from the mainstream health system of the country. This has resulted in just 2% of the terminally ill patients receive palliative care at the end of life leaving millions of people die in despair, most of whom are elderly having a natural entitlement to palliative care due to their advanced age and comorbidities. Taking the case of Yogendra and Anjana, a lonely, terminally ill, elderly couple, this chapter enquires about what could have been a better place of care for them at the end of life. None of the care settings like family homes, hospitals, community-based care setups, or even old-age homes in traditional “gerentopolises”-meet palliative and end-of-life care standards. Unfortunately, Yogendra-Anjana died, committing suicide, within the weak palliative care ecology of the country. The chapter traces the root of this poor palliative care environment and suggests remedial measures to let the elderly live well until death.