According to reports by South Korean media outlets such as Yonhap News Agency, The Korea Herald, and Munhwa Ilbo on August 10, since the implementation of the “Medical Decision – Making on Life – Sustaining Treatment Act” (also known as the “Dignity in Dying Law”) in South Korea in February 2018, the number of people who have signed documents rejecting life – prolonging treatment has exceeded 3 million, accounting for approximately 6.8% of the adult population in South Korea. Up to now, more than 440,000 people have terminated life – prolonging treatment after filling out the documents in accordance with this law.
South Korea’s current law stipulates that adults over the age of 19 can independently fill out an advance medical directive for life – sustaining treatment (similar to a “living will”) at 556 designated registration institutions nationwide, on the premise of fully understanding the relevant content. This is to clarify their choice to reject or discontinue life – prolonging treatment when entering the “end – of – life process”.
It is reported that “life – prolonging treatment” here refers to the treatment means used to maintain vital signs for terminally ill patients who have been determined to be hopeless of cure in medicine, covering four types of measures such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, hemodialysis, anti – cancer treatment, and the use of artificial respirators.
In the early days of the implementation of the “Dignity in Dying Law”, there were few responders. In 2018, only about 86,000 people in South Korea registered. However, the number of registrations soared in 2021, exceeding 1 million in August of that year, surpassing 2 million in October 2023, and has broken through 3 million as of August 9 this year.
However, the scope of application of South Korea’s current law is limited to the “end – of – life process”, that is, the patient must be in a stage close to death and have no possibility of recovery or complete recovery before treatment can be stopped.
This limitation has caused many controversies in practice. In 2023, although a terminally ill cancer patient had filled out an advance directive and his family also requested the termination of treatment, the medical institution did not implement it because the patient was in a coma and was determined not to meet the legal “dying” standard. Eventually, the patient died a week after falling into a coma.
In response to the controversy caused by the narrow scope of application of the law, several members of the Democratic Party of South Korea have proposed a revision to the “Medical Decision – Making on Life – Sustaining Treatment Act”. They suggest expanding the scope of application to the end – stage and potentially life – threatening stages, enabling patients to make decisions earlier in their illness and thus protecting their autonomy and quality of life. Currently, the revision is under consideration by the National Assembly.
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