Mumbai: Maharashtra will become the first state to maintain digitised records of living wills, two years after custodians were appointed in 2024. A Government Resolution (GR) on Tuesday stated that a portal has been integrated into the mahaulb.in website for urban citizens to permanently preserve their living wills in all municipal corporations and nagar panchayats in the state.A living will is a legal document in which individuals specify their medical treatment preferences, including the option to refuse artificial life-sustaining treatment altogether, should they become incapacitated. It is a form of passive euthanasia through an “advance directive”. Anyone above the age of 18 can create a living will with the signatures of two witnesses and a notary.The GR by the Urban Development Department further stated that, as per Supreme Court guidelines, municipal commissioners and chief officers of municipal councils and nagar panchayats will act as custodians of these wills. The state appointed 417 custodians across such institutions; these will now undergo revalidation.City-based gynaecologist Dr Nikhil Datar, who filed a public interest litigation seeking implementation of the Supreme Court guidelines, said: “One mad person can still make some changes in the system.”But it is far from over. The state health department established primary and secondary medical boards at the district level to oversee cases involving living wills, but Dr Datar argued that such boards need decentralisation, with every hospital in the state having its own primary and secondary boards.The next step, he said, is for the public health department to provide directions for the establishment of these boards. “The Rural Development Department also needs to release the same GR as urban development so that custodians are appointed at the gram panchayat level,” Dr Datar said. He added that he will have to approach the court again if there are severe delays on both fronts.
