Bad news is good news.

So, Aruna Shanbaug has died after being in a vegetative state for 42 years. But not before assorted ghouls made money from her agony by writing books, shouting their opinions on television channels and even a court case to end her life through euthanasia. Fortunately, the Supreme Court turned down the plea to kill her in 2011 but the same people are boasting today of their victory in getting the Supreme Court to agree that passive euthanasia is permissible. How did these people arrive at the conclusion that Ms Shanbaug would be better off dead? Does writing a book make a person an expert on how pain is felt, how it can be managed and which life is to be written off? Would they dare to apply for euthanasia on a politician with Alzheimer's disease or with severe head injuries, leaving him in a " minimally conscious state ". Ms Shanbaug was fair game. Her family was poor, she was a nurse at her hospital and the case was sensational. Through it all the nurses at the hospital showed unbelievable dignity, caring and love for one of their own, nursing her for 42 years, for no extra money. That the rapist was out in 6 years to continue to enjoy life is but another example of how our judicial system is always so affectionate towards criminals and totally indifferent towards victims. Rape is not restricted to India as the howling media would have us believe. With a population of 1.25 billion even a low rate can mean many such cases in actual numbers. Even one rape is unacceptable and the rapist should be put away for a long time. There should be a sex offenders register available online and violent rapists should be offered chemical castration as a condition for release. Convicted rapists should have to register their residence at the local police station and report to the station every week or so. However, instead of a calm reasoned discussion on how to prevent the crime there is a hysterical overreaction, led by the media, keen to increase their ratings. This allows white skinned hypocrites to make hectoring documentaries when children in their own countries are being arrested for rape. You do not see them making such documentaries about how one in six British people, both women and men, have been sexually assaulted during their lives and there has been a rise of 32% in sex crimes in 10 years in the UK. Finally, passive euthanasia is already rampant in India. It is called poverty. Treatment of cancer, end stage renal disease and neurological diseases is so expensive that only the wealthy and those financed by the taxpayer, politicians and civil servants, can afford it. The rest choose to die. With property prices at US levels active euthanasia could result in a blood bath as children seek to get rid of aged parents who own real estate. In Holland where the right to die became law in 2002 even mental patients and children are now being terminated by doctors. If you stand to inherit property worth Rs 100 million you could easily slip Rs 10 million to a doctor. It needs rational discussion not emotional busybodies.