Questioner: Is mercy killing wrong? When a person is suffering or if he is in a coma, is it a relief given to them?
Sadhguru: When you were born, your mother suffered immensely, isn’t it? So, should we have killed her or killed you at that time to relieve somebody of that tremendous suffering? People on the deathbed are not suffering as much as people in the labour ward.
This prolonged suffering will not be there if you don’t unnecessarily interfere with the process of life. Mercy killing is not necessary if you just allow a person to die naturally. People live here for a long time as vegetables only because you go on medically pushing it; otherwise nobody will stay beyond their natural time. Now, especially in the Western countries, they are not allowing people to die peacefully. In India, a person had a choice, even today they still have a choice—if somebody is old and he knows he will die in the next few months, he can just choose not to go to the hospital. He can just stay at home with his family and die the way he has to die; but in the West it’s not like that. They will anyway put you in a hospital on all kinds of life support systems and they just don’t let you die. The man can’t live, he can’t move his little finger but you won’t let him die. That is the greatest punishment that you can give to a man. Let those who have to die, die decently, isn’t it? Medical science is there for your well-being and not to just go on stretching life. Beyond a certain point, living in this body becomes meaningless to you.
That doesn’t mean that if some disease comes, we must withdraw all medical support. Many people who have been close to death have bounced back and lived on. So, should we give them a chance or not? Who is to decide and when? If the doctors feel that there is no way to recover, if it’s a 100 per cent medical conclusion, at that time if you withdraw medication, life will leave. There is no need to inject a poison or something to kill them.
If the body is not fit for life, life will leave. It’s not for you to decide whether the body is fit or not, unless you are so aware that you can just drop the body and leave. So, if you are afraid of old age and suffering, why don’t you start doing some sadhana or spiritual practices to prepare yourself so that when you want to leave, you can leave. Why do you want to wait for that moment and burden your son or daughter with the decision to pull the plug on you? It’s not fair to them, isn’t it? Even if they do it out of their compassion or love, can they ever forget it?
You can live in such a way that you don’t need anybody’s mercy. You can live your life to a plan—you live as long as it’s necessary and you can leave when you have to leave—gracefully, not with anybody having to give you mercy killing.
There are always people who want to be progressive, who are thinking of mercy killing. They think it’s a revolutionary idea, you know. If you are really progressive, why don’t you empower society and individuals with the power to shed their body as per their will; that’s what I am doing. So that people grow into such a capability that they can transcend this life by will and not by mercy killing.
The author is a prominent spiritual leader.
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