I propose to commence the order with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, which would read as under:

"Some days back a calf having been maimed lay in agony in the ashram. Finally in all humility but with the clearest of convictions I got in my presence a doctor kindly to administer the calf a quietus by means of a poison injection. The whole thing was over in less than two minutes. The question may legitimately be put to me: Would I apply to human beings the principle I have enunciated in connection with the calf? Would I like it to be applied in my own case? My reply is 'Yes'; the same law holds good in both the cases. Just as a surgeon does not commit himsa but practises the purest ahimsa when he wields his knife/ one may find it necessary, under certain imperative circumstances, to go a step further and sever life from the body in the interest of the sufferer"

(The response of Mahatma Gandhi in the Gujarat Weekly Navjivan, in October 1928, to the anger and outrage expressed by some persons to the killing of an ailing calf in Sabarmati Ashram, at the instance of Mahatma Gandhi.)

2. The subject matter is referable to euthanasia which the petitioner claims that she must be adminis