In a keenly-awaited verdict, the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea for mercy killing on behalf of a 60-year-old nurse Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug. She is living in a vegetative state for the last 37 years in a Mumbai hospital after a brutal sexual assault. A bench of justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra said, Active euthanasia (mercy killing) is illegal, yet passive euthanasia can be permissible in exceptional circumstances. Active euthanasia is generally referred to a state where a patient is given a lethal injection or through any other method allowed to die in presence of doctors, while passive euthanasia involves withdrawing the life support system from a patient. The bench clarified that until Parliament enacts a law, its judgement on active and passive euthanasia will be in force. However, the guidelines with regard to passive euthanasia were not immediately available. Aruna, who is now nearly 60 years old, slipped into coma after a brutal attack on her at Mumbai's King Edward Memorial Hospital by a staffer on November 27, 1973. The plea for Aruna's mercy killing had been made by writer Pinky Virani who had told the court in her petition that the nurse slipped into coma after she was attacked by a sweeper who wrapped a dog chain around her neck and yanked the victim with it. According to the petitioner, in the last 37 years after the incident, Aruna has become featherweight and her bones are brittle. She is prone to bed sores.