The Supreme Court of India finally gave the nod to the practice of passive euthanasia, which involves causing death of the sufferer by omission of treatment. For India, it is a landmark judgement, considering the country had a long-standing moral debate about euthanasia. The proponents endorsed it citing humanitarian reasons and the opponents are against However, as much as we like to celebrate the judgement, there were other countries that beat us to this race. Here is a list of countries that already okayed euthanasia even before India did.

Netherlands

Netherlands holds the reputation of being the first country that legalised euthanasia. The country took the landmark decision in April 2002, legalising both euthanasia and assisted suicide. But in order to qualify for euthanasia, the patient should fulfil a few set of conditions. First, they should be in unbearable pain, second the disease must be incurable and third, the patient should be in a sound state of mind before agreeing to euthanasia. Later in 2004, they also introduced the Groningen Protocol which laid down the rules for child euthanasia.

Canada

Canada is among the few countries in the world that legalises active euthanasia. However, like Netherlands, Canada has a set of rules that helps patients qualify for mercy killing. The patient has to be above the age of 18, the illness suffered by the patient must be terminal in nature, the illness should have progressed to a point where death is inevitable. To prevent foreigners from exploiting Canadian euthanasia laws, only patients who are eligible to claim the Canadian health insurance may use it.

Belgium

After Netherlands, Belgium became the second country to formally legalise euthanasia in 2002. The law of the country states that any patient who is in unbearable pain, intractable to treatment and suffering from a terminal disease has the right to end his or her own life. Belgium also takes into consideration the statement recorded by patients before they enter into a vegetative state. One of the notable cases of euthanasia in Belgium include that of a 44-year-old transsexual transitioning from a woman to a man Nathan Verhelst suffered from a botched gender reassignment surgery.

Colombia

Colombian government ruled in a 6-3 decision that no person should be held criminally responsible for ending the life of a terminally ill patient who has clearly instructed them to do so. Despite the ruling, the doctors in the country were reluctant to carry out euthanasia because there was a separate law that imprisoned those who carried out mercy killing for 3-6 months. In 2015, the health ministry put the 1997 ruling in practice with a strict protocol. Relatives of the unconscious patients are required to prove patient’s desire to end lives in writing or through an audio/video recording. And conscious patients have to be informed of all their treatment options. If they still insist of euthanasia, they are expected to get an authorisation from a panel comprising a doctor, a lawyer or a psychiatrist/psychologist.

Luxembourg

In March 2009, the tiny nation of Luxembourg entered the list of countries favouring euthanasia. The move made the country the third among the nations of the European Union to legalise euthanasia. However, patients have to get an approval from a panel comprising two doctors and experts to qualify for euthanasia. The doctors themselves have to take the opinions of the peers to ensure that the patient is indeed suffering from an incurable condition.

Switzerland and Germany

The two countries refrain to use the term ‘euthanasia’ due to its Nazi connotations. At the beginning of World War II, the handicapped and the mentally retarded citizens were executed by the Nazis to weed out anyone with genetic imperfections. So Switzerland prefers to use the term “active assisted suicide” instead. In the country, doctors were allowed to assist patients with suicide, as long as they themselves don’t administer the lethal drug to them by hand.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 09, 2018 05:26 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).