By Kim Jae-won
The government will grant terminally-ill patients the right to die next year at the earliest.
The presidential committee on bioethics reached an agreement at its subpanel level Thursday to permit the suspension of life-sustaining treatment with the consent of patients and members of their family.
The 11 members of the Special Subcommittee on Stopping Meaningless Life-sustaining Treatments’ agreement will likely be legislated by the end of the year for approval by the National Assembly and will go into effect next year.
The subcommittee, chaired by Seoul National University Hospital Professor Lee Yun-seong, consisted of doctors, religious leaders and heads of patients’ associations.
“If patients indicate that they don’t want to receive life-sustaining treatment, their decision will be respected. If all immediate family members agree, it should also be allowed,” said Park Seon-myeong, a committee member.
The subcommittee will host a hearing on the issue later this month and will submit the case to the presidential committee.
Currently, there is no law related to life-sustaining treatment. Due to a lack of legal basis, such treatment has often been the cause of legal disputes between doctors and families of terminally ill patients.
The committee’s decision reflects a Supreme Court ruling in 2009, which approved a petition from the family of a comatose 75-year-old female patient, surnamed Kim.
The highest court approved the removal of respirators from Kim because she expressed the wish not to receive life-sustaining treatment before she fell into a coma.
Observers say the late Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan had a positive influence on public awareness about the right to die with dignity because he faced his death naturally at the age of 86 in 2009 by refusing any life-support.