Baba Ramdev Special: How to medically face a patient of Satyagraha with signs of starvation?

I recall days of my joining in MBBS in 1975 when I met Vinoba Bhave ji for the first time and when I was an intern, I was a part of the medical team who looked after him when he undertook  a fast unto death. It was a willful decision taken by Vinoba ji after he was diagnosed to be suffering from LBBB heart rhythm and a pacemaker was advised to be put on him. Instead of going for an artificial machine, he decided to call it a day and quit the world. It became a debate of the nation whether a person can decide to fast unto death or not. A case was also filed in the local court that Vinobaji is trying to commit suicide but before the date of hearing, Vinobaji left his body on the day of Amavasya, 10 am on Diwali day. Ever since that subject has been hitting my mind and the memories of Vinoba Bhave ji became afresh with the recent episodes  of Anna Hazare going on Satyagraha and later Baba Ram Dev sitting on fast unto death.

I also recall my days in 1986 when I was doing my Fellowship in Non-invasive Cardiology in Birmingham Alabama USA when I came across article in US media about physician assisted suicide, a term not defined by Medical Council of India.

Physician assisted suicide was an unethical act in American dictionary at that time. From medical point of view, if we see a patient sitting on Satyagraha with a vow to fast unto death for practical purposes, he or she is committing suicide and if we as doctors are silent witness to the same, we are liable to be charged as an unethical act of assisting in that physician assisted suicide.

We should refuse to attend to any such patient and if we attend then it becomes our duty to forcibly treat that patient even if it amounts to calling Police or the local administrative authorities. As medical fraternity, we should refuse to attend to such patients if we are not allowed to act and treat them medically.

I know in Vinoba Bhaveji’s time doctors from MGIMS, Nagpur and many invited from Bombay behaved like a near spectators and were unable to offer any help to the dying saint.  We are seeing the same phenomenon happening with Baba Ram Dev and the local treating doctors showing their helplessness.