Shanbaug sparked a debate on euthanasia in India.
AB Wire
MUMBAI: Aruna Shanbaug, who became a lightning rod for the controversy and debate surrounding euthanasia after entering a vegetative state following her brutal rape in 1973, died in Mumbai’s KEM Hospital on Monday after suffering cardiac arrest as result of pneumonia.
Shanbaug was a staff nurse at the KEM Hospital when she was horrifically assaulted by sweeper Sohanlal Bharta Valmiki on November 27, 1973, who subdued her by wrapping a dog chain around her neck and pulling on it forcibly, reported The Hindustan Times.
Valmiki served a seven-year prison sentence after being convicted of robbery and attempted murder but he was not arraigned on rape charges due to an unknown official deliberately removing the portions of Shanbaug’s medical report that proved she was raped.
Following the unimaginable attack more than four decades ago, Shanbaug, who is now 67-years-old, entered into a vegetative state from which she never recovered. The Indian Express reported that in the absence of any relatives who were willing to look after her, the hospital decided to assume responsibility for its former nurse.
In March 2011, the Supreme Court rejected a petition filed by author Pinki Virani that sought to institute euthanasia for Shanbaug. Virani also wrote a book on Shanbaug in which she described Shanbaug’s existence as “unbearable agony,” but the hospital’s management and nursing staff were opposed to the motion as well, according to The Hindustan Times.
This was the second time Shanbaug had contracted pneumonia in last two years and following her cardiac arrest, two relatives — niece Mangala Naik and Vaikuntha Vasudev Naik, her brother — had approached KEM hospital for possession of her body.
Mangala told the Express, “We were not given any financial aid to maintain her. Otherwise we had no problem in looking after her.”
However, the hospital’s nursing staff claimed to be the “only family” Shanbaug ever had, and disclosed that Shanbaug’s relatives visited her incredibly rarely.
“The Supreme Court ruled that KEM hospital is the guardian of Aruna. She should be cremated by the entire hospital staff,” remarked staff nurse Anuradha Paradhe.
Shanbaug’s final rites are set to be conducted at KEM hospital, reported the Indian Express, after which she will be taken to Bhoiwada crematorium for final cremation.