By Kim Se-jeong
Gravely ill patients with no hope of recovery will be allowed to die, either by choice or with consent from a member of their family, if a legal ruling is passed almost 20 years since a debate on “death with dignity” began in the country.
The National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee voted for the bill, Wednesday, that would permit medical service providers to stop treatment of patients who are close to dying.
The bill is now waiting for a vote at the Assembly’s extraordinary session early next year. If passed, it will be implemented by early 2018.
“I believe the bill will be passed without much debate,” said Rep. Lee Myoung-su of the ruling Saenuri Party, who is one of the sponsors of the bill. “This is because it’s not about politics but about people dying with dignity, and many people seem to agree about passive euthanasia.”
The bill addresses the needs of dying patients. Life-sustaining treatment, such as CPR, artificial respiration and cancer-fighting drugs, will be withheld from such patients.
Such treatments could be stopped if a patient expresses the clear intention of not being willing to receive them while still being sentient. The patients can write orders for their physicians about life-sustaining treatments (POLST) or advanced directives (AD).
If the patients become unconscious, doctors can check their POLST and stop treatment. Or at least two members of a family can testify that a patient prefers death with dignity and at least two doctors should confirm it.
When it is impossible to figure out what the patient thinks about life-sustaining treatment, it requires parental consent in the case of minors, and consent from all family members when adults are the patients.
If a patient is without family, the bill said the hospital’s bioethics committee could make the decision.
Debate on passive euthanasia in Korea began in 1997 when medical service providers in Seoul were charged with murder after releasing a dying patient at the request of the family.
The debate was rekindled in 2008 when family members of a patient sued Yonsei Severance Hospital, demanding it stop treating patient in a coma so that she could die with dignity. In 2009, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the family, saying she had the right to end life.
This sparked a national debate. In 2010, a committee was formed composed of religious, medical and legal figures, but it failed to agree on anything. In 2012, the Presidential National Bioethics Committee recommended that the health ministry create the legal groundwork for passive euthanasia.
Although not strongly, some religious communities still oppose it, saying that decisions about life and death should not be taken by people.