Some aspects of legal and moral & ethical basis of euthanasia in India and South Africa (experience of the BRICS countries)

This article is aimed at identifying of legal framework and ethical problems of euthanasia in two of the five BRICS countries belonging to the Anglo-Saxon system of law - India and South Africa. In this format, the article analyzes the approaches of these countries that create patterns of admissibility of euthanasia, its potential and ethical and legal basis for today, based on analytical reflections on the information gathered from sources and literature from the list of sources and literature. The relevance of this research is due to the fact that a number of approaches to legislation and the judicial acts under study can be useful in finding answers to similar questions related to euthanasia on our, Russian legal order. The analyzed ethical and legal experience is reflected both in historical (1986, 1996, 2011) and in new (2015, 2018) judicial acts. Thus, this study serves to fill the existing gap. The author’s results are presented in the identified partial similarity of approaches based on adherence to the Anglo-Saxon system of law, and differences in the understanding of the grounds for the permissibility of euthanasia. The theoretical and practical significance of the results obtained is determined by the fact that Russian readers will be provided with up-to-date scientific information about the state of the Indian and South African approaches in the field under study, which in practical terms will contribute to understanding the gap (or lack thereof) with the approaches of Russian researchers and practitioners (lawyers, etc.).

BRICS, India, South Africa, euthanasia, assisted suicide, key precedents, judicial acts, criminal codes