may be cause this too Not suicide, not euthanasia

Jains are particularly offended by the comparisons drawn between Santhara, suicide and euthanasia.

“People commit suicide when they are fed up with the world or are deeply disturbed mentally,” said Raju Vaiyavach, a Jain businessman from Mumbai. “But taking Santhara required tremendous inner strength. It is about uniting with one’s antaraatma [inner soul], it is not about dying.”

In his petition against Santhara, Nikhil Soni had also invoked the Supreme Court’s 2011 judgement in the Aruna Shanbaug case, which legalised passive euthanasia but emphasised that active euthanasia or assisted suicide is illegal. If such euthanasia could not be allowed, Soni argued, Santhara too could not be legal.

But Dhanwant Shah, president of Mumbai’s Jain Yuvak Sangh, believes there is a fine distinction between the two. “The aim of euthanasia is to be free from misery, which is a desire. Santhara is about the end of all desire.”