MAINS Current Affairs includes Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Disaster Management & Assisted Dying

Disaster Management

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Disaster Management

Context: Recent disaster response initiatives in Nepal have highlighted the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and crowdsourced information to enhance the speed and accuracy of disaster management.

Role of AI in Managing Disaster 

• Early warning and prediction: AI is able to process huge datasets of historical weather records and current meteorological observations to provide forecasts that are quicker and more specific to a particular location.
  • Google Flood Hub utilises weather and hydrological information to provide advance information on flood hazards.
• Hazard Mapping: AI is able to integrate satellite imagery, geographic data, meteorological information, maps and administrative databases to identify areas at risk from certain hazards.
• Response, Relief and Rescue: Disasters create an overwhelming amount of information from smartphones, social media, emergency calls, drones and government databases.
  • AI is able to manage this unstructured data and discover useful patterns far quicker than manual systems.
  • In the Nepal disaster, an AI-powered webpage helped link crowdsourced information on missing persons with official records of people killed or injured.
  • Thermal imaging drones can locate human heat signatures under rubble and guide rescue crews to probable victims.
• Post-Disaster Recovery: AI and satellite-based techniques can help detect isolated villages, destroyed infrastructure, blocked highways and suitable areas for emergency helicopter operations.
  • Authorities can use this information to prioritise the distribution of food, medicines, shelter and other relief goods.

Key Artificial Intelligence (AI) Applications

• GraphCast: An AI-driven weather prediction system that can quickly produce worldwide weather forecasts.
• Google Flood Hub: AI-powered flood forecasting and early-warning information.
• DisasterAWARE: Uses geographic and disaster information to enable hazard monitoring and risk assessment.
• SKAI: Uses satellite photography and artificial intelligence to help rapidly analyse disaster damage.

What are the Challenges? 

• AI models depend on large enough datasets that are accurate and dependable, which may not be available during disasters.
• Communities with limited access to smartphones, internet connectivity or digital services may be under-represented in AI-generated assessments.
• Social media and crowd-sourced platforms can generate significant amounts of erroneous, duplicate or misleading information.
• Artificial intelligence systems taught on one geographical area may not function similarly well in another area with varied terrain, climate and settlement trends.
• Information concerning missing persons, locations and groups affected by the incident raises questions about data protection.
• Mistakes made by AI may be serious if the results are utilised to make evacuation, rescue or relief decisions.

Way Ahead

• Integrate AI with existing disaster-management institutions rather than treating it as a substitute for human decision-making.
• Build India-centric hyperlocal datasets on weather, terrain, infrastructure, vulnerability and past disasters.
• Create automated systems in regional and local languages to facilitate accessibility during emergencies.
• Strengthen interoperability among IMD, ISRO, NDMA, state disaster-management authorities, telecom providers and local administrations.

Governance

2. Assisted Dying

Context: Pope Leo XIV has termed assisted dying “false compassion”, reinforcing the Catholic Church’s view that life is sacred from conception to natural death.

Key Concepts

• Passive euthanasia: Withholding or withdrawing life support.
• Active euthanasia: Deliberate administration of a lethal agent by a doctor.
• Assisted suicide: The patient self administers a lethal substance provided by a doctor.

Arguments Against 

• Sanctity of life: Life is a gift and not a personal possession. Ending it undermines human dignity.
• Compassion redefined: True compassion means accompanying the sick through palliative care, not eliminating the sufferer.
• Vulnerability: Elderly, disabled and poor patients may feel like a burden on family or the health system.
• Medical ethics: It conflicts with the Hippocratic principle of “do no harm” and erodes trust in doctors.

Arguments For

• Autonomy: Individuals should decide the manner of their death, especially in irreversible suffering.
• Dignity: Article 21 covers dignity in living and, by extension, in dying. For ex: the Supreme Court in Common Cause (2018) recognised the right to die with dignity.
• Relief from suffering: Terminal illness often brings pain that palliation cannot fully control.
• Resource use: Prolonged futile treatment burdens families and scarce ICU capacity.

India’s Position

• Aruna Shanbaug (2011): The Supreme Court permitted passive euthanasia with High Court oversight.
• Common Cause v Union of India (2018): Passive euthanasia and advance medical directives (living wills) were legalised.
• 2023 modification: Procedures were simplified. Medical boards now decide within set timelines, and living wills need only notary or gazetted officer attestation.
• Active euthanasia: It remains illegal and can attract culpable homicide provisions under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
• Mental Healthcare Act 2017: It presumes severe stress in suicide attempts and decriminalises them in practice.
• Palliative care: The National Programme for Palliative Care (2012) exists, but access remains very limited. Kerala’s community model is the notable exception.

Challenges and Concerns

• Weak palliative infrastructure: Choosing death is not a free choice when good care is unavailable.
• Implementation gaps: Few living wills are executed, and hospitals lack clarity on medical board procedures.
• Risk of misuse: Property disputes and family pressure can distort consent, especially with low health literacy and high out of pocket health spending.
• Determining capacity: Depression can mimic a wish to die, so mental health screening is essential.
• Ethical pluralism: Religious diversity in India makes a uniform position on end of life care contentious.
• Doctor’s dilemma: Fear of legal liability leads to defensive medicine and either overtreatment or undertreatment.

Way Forward

• Strengthen palliative care first: Integrate it into Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres and train doctors and nurses.
• Clear legislation: A dedicated law on end of life decisions, as recommended by the Law Commission’s 241st Report (2012) and 196th Report (2006), would end reliance on judicial guidelines alone.
• Safeguards: These should include multiple independent medical opinions, psychiatric evaluation, cooling off periods and judicial or board oversight.
• Awareness: Promote living wills through digital registries, such as linking them to health records under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.
• Ethics committees: Hospitals should set up standing bioethics committees for transparent decisions.
• International learning: Study Belgian and Dutch experience with expansion of eligibility, and Swiss and Oregon models of tight regulation.

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