QUALITY vs LENGTH OF LIFE IN AGEING INDIA

I recently met X-once a domineering professor, now a lonely man living in a community for senior citizens.

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He is 90 years old. His wife and two sons are dead. He can still walk without help. X would like to die. But he can't because India believes in non-violence and has respect for life. The professor believes that this is an inversion of the truthit is because we do not respect life that he is still alive.

Euthanasia is not legal in India.

A few countries like Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, parts of Australia, and parts of the US allow the practice of euthanasia.

Etymologically, in Greek, eu means happy and thanatos means death.

The drugs used usually are barbiturates like pentobarbital. This can also be used in combination with muscle relaxants. Peaceful death occurs in minutes.

It's fashionable among optimists to talk of India as a young country. 'Vibrant' is the nearly-meaningless word they use to qualify India. Some 380 million of the population is aged 10-24 years, which is why they hope for a demographic-economic dividend.