India's top court allows 'passive euthanasia'

Identical twins were killed by Belgian doctors last month in a unique mercy killing under Belgium's euthanasia laws. The two men, 45, from the Antwerp region were both born deaf and sought euthanasia after finding that they would also soon go blind. The pair told doctors that they were unable to bear the thought of not being able to see each other again.

Months after the fact, one mother admits she and her husband have still told no one about their heart-wrenching decision to have food and fluid tubes removed from their dying child. “I thought a lot of people would think it was disgusting and horrible and murderous if we ever said that we were going to take away the food,” the woman told researchers behind a new Canadian study. “I just thought that people would think it was, you know, paramount to murder.”

The deaf twins killed by legal euthanasia in Belgium were frightened of losing their independence in an institution and had “nothing to live for,” their brother said Monday. The 45-year-old twins, identified as Marc and Eddy Verbessem, from the village of Putte, near the city of Mechelen, were both born deaf and asked to die after finding that they would also soon go blind. Dirk Verbessem, 46, explained that his younger brothers had lived together for all their adult lives and could not communicate with the outside world.

South Korean doctors will be allowed to remove life support from terminally ill patients after confirming their wish to die, under new medical guidelines on mercy killing, officials said Wednesday.The guidelines were drawn up by a committee of 18 representatives from parliament, civic groups and the judicial, religious and medical communities, the health ministry said.They agreed that doctors could stop prolonged life-sustaining treatment, based only on prior written or oral statements from patients.

NEW DELHI — The trial of five men accused of the rape and murder of a student aboard a bus in New Delhi will begin Thursday and should have none of the long delays commonly associated with India’s justice system, a defense lawyer said after a brief hearing Monday. Judge Yogesh Khanna denied a defense motion to make the proceedings public, ruling that the courtroom must remain closed because of the sensitive nature of the crime, said V.K. Anand, the lawyer for one of the defendants, Ram Singh.

NEW DELHI — The companion of a woman who was gang-raped aboard a bus in New Delhi recounted in a television interview for the first time Friday how the pair was attacked for 2 1/2 hours before being thrown on the side of the road, where passersby ignored them and police debated jurisdiction issues before helping them.

They are terminally ill, and they have decided to die -- a heartbreakingly honest film at the Sundance Film Festival casts a sober light on the reality of euthanasia, in one US state."How to Die in Oregon" by US filmmaker Peter Richardson is in competition at the prestigious independent movie fest in the Utah ski resort of Park City, which climaxes this Sunday.In 1994 the western state became the first in the US to legalize euthanasia for certain terminally-ill patients. Since then more than 500 Oregonians have decided to end their days with medical assistance.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India's Supreme Court on Monday rejected drug maker Novartis AG's attempt to patent an updated version of a cancer drug in a landmark decision that health activists say ensures poor patients around the world will get continued access to cheap versions of lifesaving medicines.