South Korea: Guidelines for "death with dignity" agreed

Description: [of the article from The Korea Herald]

The government said Wednesday that a set of rules had been agreed upon regarding the termination of artificial life support for terminally ill patients. Under the leadership of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, a consultative group consisting of 18 members including health officials, doctors, lawyers, religious leaders and activists, had discussed the issue over the past seven months.

According to the agreement, life support treatment such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation and artificial respirators can be removed from terminally ill patients. As water and nutritional supply must be maintained, the agreement is not considered an approval of euthanasia, a deliberate intervention of ending a life, the ministry said.

The Health Ministry plans to establish a review committee on the stoppage of life support and individual medical institutions are also required to set up an ethics committee to oversee the whole process.

The report notes that: Of some 240,000 hospital deaths every year, 180,000 are terminally ill patients, the Health Ministry reports. And 30,000 are kept alive artificially. The Health Ministry will submit the discussion result to the National Assembly for consideration.

[There are other related stories in the Links section below.]

Links:

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  • http://tinyurl.com/25uwrv3

  • http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100714000770

    Also see:

  • South Korea: Gov't panel draws up guidelines for "death with dignity" bill [Korea Times]
    http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/07/113_69435.html

    Excerpts from the report:
    Whether to follow a patient's request will be decided by the concerned doctors and the former's legal guardians. However, if they cannot reach a decision, it will be referred to the respective hospital's ethics committee. If any dispute ensues, a court will give a final ruling.

    After a series of debates, the group couldn't come to an agreement regarding whether to let a third party - family members or other legal guardians - sign the consent form for the patient. Professor Koh Youn-suk of Asan Medical Center and head of the Korea Society for Medical Ethics stressed that some acknowledgement was necessary. "In Korean culture, family members are given nearly equal legal status as the person being treated. Accepting family members' requests for terminating treatment has long been accepted in other countries," he said.

Source:

Ji-yoon, Lee. "Guidelines for ‘death with dignity’ agreed". The Korea Herald. 2010-07-14 19:12. <www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100714000770>. The Korea Herald, 3rd-5th floor, 1-17, Jeong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea. C.P.O. Box 6479, (Postal Code: 100-120).

Tags:

Tags (or keywords) briefly indicate some major topics of the report.

  • life support

  • medical treatment

  • passive euthanasia

  • legislation

  • South Korea

ID:

The EuthaNEWSia ID for this advisory is: enid201007149911.
Mailed: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 14:57:18 -0600
at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Etcetera:

EuthaNEWSia is a free Canadian news advisory service covering end-of-life issues such as right to die, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. EuthaNEWSia is produced by the Right to Die Society of Canada which works toward a good death for all, including open, regulated and equitable access to euthanasia and assisted suicide. The editor is Michael Dawson <editor@euthanewsia.ca>. 

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