In a unique case of its kind, India's highest judiciary Monday rejected a plea for "mercy killing" of a comatosed woman patient lying paralyzed for 37 years, Xinhua reported.
The country's Supreme Court dismissed the plea for euthanasia of Aruna Shanbaug who was raped 37 years ago and now restricted to a hospital bed in a coma since the incident in Mumbai.
A two-judge bench rejected the petition saying that the petitioner Pinki Virani's relationship to the patient does not give her the right to appeal on Shanbaug's behalf.
Virani, who has written a book on Shanbaug, had said that keeping the patient alive violates her right to live with dignity.
The hospital where a ward boy raped Shanbaug who worked there as a nurse, has been arguing it will continue to care for Shanbaug.