About the Book: Sallekhana: The Jain Approach to Dignified Death
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
SallekhanÀ, 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