Your father is in a hospital bed. The doctors say there is no hope left. He is in pain, and he asks you to help him end it. What can you legally do? The short answer is nothing that ends his life. Euthanasia is not legal in Pakistan, and helping someone die can put you in prison.
The short answer
No. Pakistan has no law that allows euthanasia or assisted suicide. A doctor who gives a fatal injection is committing intentional killing under the Pakistan Penal Code. A family member who helps a patient die faces the same risk. And since May 2026, even attempting suicide is a punishable offence again.
What is euthanasia?
Euthanasia means deliberately ending a person's life to stop suffering. Usually a doctor gives a lethal dose of medicine. Assisted suicide is close but different. The patient ends their own life, and someone else provides the means or the help. Both are illegal in Pakistan. The Penal Code never uses the word euthanasia, but it does not need to. Section 300 defines qatl-i-amd as causing death with the intention of causing death. Mercy killing fits that definition.
What punishment can mercy killing bring?
Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code sets the punishment for qatl-i-amd. It can be death as qisas. Qisas means the same punishment, an eye for an eye. Or it can be death or life imprisonment as ta'zir, which is a discretionary punishment. Or it can be up to 25 years in prison where qisas does not apply. The patient's consent changes nothing. Section 87 of the code only protects harm that is not intended to cause death. If you give a medicine with the purpose of ending a life, consent is not a defence. The full text of the Pakistan Penal Code is on pakistani.org.
Is helping someone die a crime?
This is where many families get confused. The old sections that punished abetment of suicide, sections 305 and 306, are no longer in the code. Pakistani legal writing records that they were removed after Federal Shariat Court recommendations in 1981. But the gap is not a green light. The general rules of abetment still apply. If the act is an offence, the person who instigates or helps is punished like the doer. The Federal Shariat Court said the same in its 2026 judgment: people who push children or others towards suicide should not escape prosecution. And a doctor who gives the injection is not an abettor. They are the one doing the killing.
What changed in May 2026?
On 18 May 2026 the Federal Shariat Court accepted Shariat Petitions 03/I/2023 and 01/I/2025. It declared that the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act 2022 was against the Quran and Sunnah, as the Express Tribune reported. That 2022 Act had removed section 325 of the Penal Code, the offence of attempting suicide. The court restored it with immediate effect. Today, attempting suicide is punishable with simple imprisonment up to one year, or a fine, or both. The judgment was authored by Justice Syed Muhammad Anwer, on a bench headed by Chief Justice Iqbal Hameed ur Rehman. The Pakistan Psychiatric Society has challenged the ruling before the Supreme Court's Shariat Appellate Bench, as Dawn reported in June 2026. That appeal is still pending.
What has the Lahore High Court said?
In 2023 the Lahore High Court heard a petition in which the applicant asked for permission to administer poison publicly as an experiment. The court dismissed the petition. In its judgment, 2023 LHC 4991, it noted that euthanasia is legal in some countries such as India. But it held that Pakistan is an Islamic state under Article 2 of the Constitution, and it refused to declare euthanasia legal.
Is there a right to die in Pakistan?
No court in Pakistan has recognised a right to die. Article 9 of the Constitution protects the right to life, and courts read that as a right to live. There is also no law on passive euthanasia, which means switching off life support or not starting it. Hospitals in Pakistan do use do not resuscitate orders in hopeless cases. But researchers at Aga Khan University wrote in 2024 that there is real confusion among doctors about brain death and about withdrawing life support, in a review on medical aid in dying in Pakistan. The law is simply silent.
What do doctors and the public think?
The numbers show a country that is not asking for this change. A 2006 study at Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad found that 2% of doctors supported legalising euthanasia and assisted suicide, and 86% were against. A WHO study published in 2011 surveyed 836 university students in four cities. Only 25.6% agreed that euthanasia should be legalised. A 2023 study at Faisalabad Medical University found 66% of medical students opposed euthanasia, while 64% supported palliative care instead.
What does Islam say?
The Quran says, in Surah Al-Isra 17:33, do not kill the soul which Allah has forbidden except by legal right. The Islamic Code of Medical Ethics, first adopted in 1986, says there is no concept of a life not worthy of living, and it forbids euthanasia in all circumstances. The Federal Shariat Court called suicide a cardinal sin and an anti-life act. These views shape the law, because the Constitution makes Islam the state religion.
What can a family actually do?
- Talk to the doctors about pain control. Palliative care is legal, and it is what most families end up using.
- Ask about a do not resuscitate order if the case is truly hopeless. Hospitals accept these in practice.
- Never give medicines with the purpose of ending a life. Never help the patient end their own life. Both can be prosecuted.
- Understand that a written wish from the patient has no legal force for euthanasia in Pakistan.
If a family member is suffering and you are looking for answers, you will find the same pattern in other areas of the law, like the rules on alcohol in Pakistan, the ban on online betting in Pakistan, and the position on using a VPN in Pakistan. The law starts from religion, and it does not bend for convenience. For more plain-language explanations of Pakistani law, browse the Lexiber blog or ask directly on the Lexiber home page.
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