The Supreme Court on Wednesday urged the Union government to consider enacting a comprehensive law governing end-of-life care, describing the absence of a statutory framework on the subject a serious legislative gap that has repeatedly compelled the judiciary to step in.. The court warned that the continued absence of legislation exposes vulnerable patients and their families to serious risks. (ANI). In its judgment allowing passive euthanasia for 32-year-old Harish Rana who has remained in a permanent vegetative state for more than a decade, the court said that the prolonged absence of legislation regulating end-of-life medical decisions has forced the judiciary to frame guidelines from time to time to safeguard the constitutional right to live and die with dignity.. Writing the judgment, Justice JB Pardiwala said the guidelines laid down by the court in earlier rulings, particularly the Constitution bench decision in Common Cause (2018), were never intended to function as a permanent substitute for legislation.. “The prolonged absence of a comprehensive legislation on end-of-life care has compelled this Court, time and again, to step in to fill the vacuum, out of constitutional necessity rather than institutional choice,” the court said. The bench, also comprising Justice KV Viswanathan, noted that while the Common Cause judgment established important safeguards by recognising the legality of passive euthanasia and advance directives, those judicially framed mechanisms were only meant to operate as a temporary bridge until Parliament enacted a detailed statutory framework.. “We urge the Union government to consider enacting a comprehensive legislation on the subject in consonance with the vision of the Constitution Bench in Common Cause (2018),” said the court, adding that such legislation would bring greater clarity and certainty to an area marked by complex medical, ethical, and emotional questions.. Calling legislative intervention an “imminent necessity”, the court said nearly eight years have passed since the Common Cause judgment, but the legal vacuum continues.. The court warned that the continued absence of legislation exposes vulnerable patients and their families to serious risks. Without a clear statutory framework, the court said, decisions about continuing or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment may become influenced by factors unrelated to medical judgment or patient autonomy.. “In the absence of a clear and comprehensive legislation, end-of-life decisions stand imperilled by the possibility that considerations wholly extraneous to medical science or the patient’s autonomy — most notably financial distress or lack of insurance coverage — may imperceptibly shape outcomes,” the court said.. Such circumstances, the bench cautioned, risk blurring the line between a genuine medical determination made in the patient’s best interests and a decision driven by the economic burden of prolonged treatment.. The court em