Since 1987, Narayan Lavate has been crusading for a citizen’s right to a state-sponsored death. His first letter to the secretary of an NGO championing passive euthanasia when he was just 55 years old was followed by a slew of petitions addressed to the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India, Tamil Nadu’s chief minister, and most recently to the President of India. In one, he offers all his blood and organs to the soldiers fighting in Kargil; in another, he begs the late Jayalalithaa to hang him and his wife in place of Rajiv Gandhi’s killers.
“Hanging will take how much time? Maximum half an hour of agony,” says Lavate, who will suffer through his 87th birthday in August, “but it will save me the agony of living.”
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When Lavate talks about “agony”, he isn’t referring like most euthanasia candidates to a terminal illness. The octogenarian and his 77-year-old wife don’t suffer from any serious ailment, have a roof over their heads, and a small but sufficient pension. Lavate’s angst is more existential. “What is the use of living further?” he asks. “We have no purpose. And beyond 75 years of age, you fall prey to various ailments and infirmities.”