Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug (1 June 1948 - 18 May 2015), alternatively spelled Shanbhag, was an Indian nurse who was at the centre of a court case on euthanasia for the coma she suffered as a result of sexual assault. In 1973, while working as a junior nurse at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, she was sexually assaulted by a ward boy, Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki, and remained in a vegetative state following the assault. On 24 January 2011, after she had been in this status for 37 years, the Supreme Court of India responded to the plea for euthanasia filed by Aruna's friend, journalist Pinki Virani, by setting up a medical panel to examine her. The court turned down the mercy killing petition on 7 March 2011. However in its landmark judgment, it allowed passive euthanasia in India. She died from pneumonia on 18 May 2015, after being in a coma for 42 years.

Biography

Shanbaug was born in Haldipur, Uttar Kannada, Karnataka. She became a nurse. At the time of the attack, she was planning to get married to a medic in the hospital.

Attack

On the night of 27 November 1973, Shanbaug was sexually assaulted by Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki, a sweeper on contract at the King Edward Memorial Hospital. Sohanlal attacked her while she was changing clothes in the hospital basement. He choked her with a dog chain and sodomized her. The asphyxiation cut off oxygen to her brain, resulting in brain stem contusion injury and cervical cord injury, apart from leaving her cortically blind. She was discovered the next morning at 7:45 am by a cleaner, who found her lying on the floor unconscious, with blood splattered all over .

The police case was registered as a case of robbery and attempted murder on account of the concealment of anal rape by the doctors under the instructions of the Dean of KEM, Dr. Deshpande, perhaps to avoid the social rejection of the victim, and her impending marriage.

Perpetrator

Sohanlal was caught and convicted, and served two concurrent seven-year sentences for assault and robbery, neither for rape or sexual molestation, nor for the "unnatural sexual offence" (which could have got him a ten-year sentence by itself). Journalist and human-rights activist Pinki Virani has since tried to track down Sohanlal; she was led to believe that Sohanlal had changed his name after leaving prison but continues to work in a Delhi hospital. Since neither the King Edward Memorial Hospital or the court that tried Sohanlal kept a file photo of him, Virani's search has so far failed.

Nurses' strike

Following the attack, nurses in Mumbai went on strike demanding improved conditions for Shanbaug and better working conditions for themselves. In the 1980s the BMC made two attempts to move Shanbaug outside the KEM Hospital to free the bed she had been occupying for seven years. KEM nurses launched a protest, and the BMC abandoned the plan.

Supreme Court case

Since the assault in 1973, Shanbaug remained in a vegetative state until her death in 2015.

On December 17, 2010, the Supreme Court, while admitting the plea to end the life made by activist-journalist Pinki Virani, sought a report on Shanbaug's medical condition from the hospital in Mumbai and the government of Maharashtra. On 24 January 2011, the Supreme Court of India responded to the plea for euthanasia filed by Aruna's friend, journalist Pinki Virani, by setting up a medical panel to examine her. The three-member medical committee subsequently set up under the Supreme Court's directive, checked on Aruna, and concluded that she met "most of the criteria of being in a permanent vegetative state".

While it turned down the mercy killing petition on 7 March 2011, the court, in a landmark judgment, allowed passive euthanasia in India. While rejecting Pinki Virani's plea for Shanbaug's euthanasia, the court laid out guidelines for passive euthanasia. According to these guidelines, passive euthanasia involves the withdrawing of treatment or food that would allow the patient to continue living.

On 25 February 2014, while hearing a PIL filed by NGO Common Cause, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India observed that the judgment in the Aruna Shanubaug case was based on a wrong interpretation of the constitution bench judgment in Gian Kaur v. State of Punjab. The court also observed that the judgment in inconsistent in itself as though it observes that euthanasia can be allowed only by legislature yet it goes on to lay down guidelines on the same. Therefore court has referred the issue to a constitution bench which shall be heard by a strength of at least five judges. Court observed:

In view of the inconsistent opinions rendered in Aruna Shanbaug (supra) and also considering the important question of law involved which needs to be reflected in the light of social, legal, medical and constitutional perspective, it becomes extremely important to have a clear enunciation of law. Thus, in our cogent opinion, the question of law involved requires careful consideration by a Constitution Bench of this Court for the benefit of humanity as a whole.

Following the Supreme Court judgment rejecting the plea, her colleagues, the nursing staff at the hospital, who had opposed the petition, and who had been looking after her since she had lapsed into coma, distributed sweets and cut a cake to celebrate what they termed her "rebirth". A senior nurse at the hospital later said, "We have to tend to her just like a small child at home. She only keeps aging like any of us, does not create any problems for us. We take turns looking after her and we love to care for her. How can anybody think of taking her life?"

Pinki Virani's lawyer, Shubhangi Tulli, ruled out filing an appeal stating "the two-judge ruling was final till the SC decided to constitute a larger bench to re-examine the issue". Pinki Virani herself stated, "Because of this woman who has never received justice, no other person in a similar position will have to suffer for more than three and a half decades".

Death

A few days before her death, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was shifted to the medical ICU (MICU) of the hospital and put on ventilator. On the morning of May 18, 2015 she passed away. Her funeral was performed by the hospital nurses and other staff members.

In popular culture

A non-fiction book titled Aruna's Story was written about the case by Pinki Virani in 1998. Duttakumar Desai wrote the Marathi play Katha Arunachi in 1994–95, which was performed at college level and subsequently staged by Vinay Apte in 2002.

A Gujarati fiction novel, Jad Chetan, was written by popular author Harkisan Mehta in 1985 based on Aruna Shanbaug's case.

Anumol will play Aruna in the Malayalam film Maram Peyyumbol.

The Indian poet Kumar Gautam has tried to express the thoughts of Aruna Shanbaug in her words in his poem An open letter from Aruna Shanbaug, published on his poetry blog.