'Brain Dead' child in India improves after father requested euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Apoorva Mandhani reported for Livelaw.in, that a "brain dead" boy, whose father asked the court to approve euthanasia for, has been improving. The father was not asking for a lethal injection but rather the withdrawal of basic care.

The article reports that the father asked the Madras High Court for euthanasia for his son. The court, then, ordered the child be examined. The article states:

Hearing the petition, a bench comprising Justice N. Kirubakaran and Justice Abdul Quddhose had appointed a three member search committee to nominate three doctors from various fields to examine the child. 

The medical specialists appointed by the search committee had then opined that the clinical status of the child does not fit into the category of Persistent Vegetative State.

In the meantime, however, the court was approached by the Director of the Anirudha Medical Organisation Private Limited, who sought permission to treat the child through ‘Trigger Point Therapy’. After ten days of this therapy, the court was informed that the child was showing signs of significant improvement.

In response to pictures and video's showing significant improvement, the court stated:

“Today, when the matter is called, Mr.S. Raveekumar, learned counsel for the 5th respondent produced photographs and video clippings of the petitioner’s son showing that the child was able to sit with minimal or no support. Moreover, it is submitted hat child is responding to light and he raises his hand as per the command. If that is so, really, it is a path-breaking achievement in Medicine.” 

“Since Trigger Point Therapy and Musculo-Skeletal Therapy could be taken advantage of and more children, as well as adults diagnosed with different degrees of brain damage, could be treated, appropriate training has to be imparted in the said therapies."

I will not comment on the medical facts of the case, but there are many people who could benefit from therapies that heal the brain. Many patients are considered "as good as dead" or "organ donors" rather than receiving treatment. 

These are people with brain injuries, not breathing corpses.