Jainism regards life to be eternal. Recognizing that the soul can never die, but merely takes a new body, a careful tradition welcoming death through intentional fasting developed more than two thousand years ago. A legal challenge Rajasthan was put forward in 2013, suggesting that this practice is harmful and coercive and targets women in particular. For a short while Sallekhanā, which means the “thinning of existence,” was declared illegal. In response to this controversy, three conferences were convened by the International School for Jain Studies to explore the legal, religious, and medical aspects of this practice. Experts discussed the long history of the practice, attested to in epigraphs throughout India; the ways in which fasting to death has become an acceptable practice in the Western world; and contemporary instances of its observance in India. This volume presents an interdisciplinary approach to thinking about the end of life, from biomedical, historical, religious, and legal perspectives. CONTENTS “ Preface Introduction – Shugan Chand Jain – Christopher Key Chapple Part One: Legal Aspect 1. Sallekhanā on Trial – Whitny Braun 2. To Be or Not to Be: Philosophical and Constitutional Perspectives on the Right to Die – Ananth Acharya 3. Suffer not the Suffering: An Examination of the Jain Practice of Sallekhanā – Purushottama Bilimoria 4. Legality of the End of Life – D.R. Mehta – Kusum Jain 5. A Study of Sallekhanā as an Art of Living Attracting No Legal Attention – Panachand Jain Part Two: Medical Aspect 6. Bioethics and Medico-Legal Approaches to Ritualized End-of-Life Fasting and Immobilization Practices in India: Jain Sallekhanā and Buddhist Tukdam – Sean Hillman 7. Practice of Modified Sallekhanā: Acceptance of Death – Nitin Shah 8. The Role of Dharma Jāgaraṇa for Sallekhanā – Reshma Bhansali Part Three: Philosophical Aspect 9. Eternal Life, Death and Dying in Jainism – Christopher Key Chapple 10. Relevance of Sallekhanā/Samādhi-maraṇa in Today’s Society – D.S. Baya 11. The Final Fast in the Eighth Aṅga: The Antakr̥tdaśāṅgasūtra – Priyadarshana Jain – Rajal Borundia Jain 12. The Jain Approach to Death and New Life – Shugan C. Jain Appendix I Appendix II Appendix III Appendix IV Contributors Consolidated Bibliography Index “