As Korea prepares to introduce euthanasia or death with dignity in Korea, an expert stressed the need for sincere discussions instead of “issue-making debates.”

Three lawmakers – Rep. Kim Sang-hun of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and Reps. In Jae-keun and Suh Young-seok of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) – and the Well-dying Culture Movement held a forum for the “beautiful end of life” at the National Assembly on Monday.

Won Shi-youn, a researcher at the National Assembly Research Service, expressed her position on euthanasia and doctor-assisted death with dignity during a forum at the Assembly on Monday.   
Won Shi-youn, a researcher at the National Assembly Research Service, expressed her position on euthanasia and doctor-assisted death with dignity during a forum at the Assembly on Monday.   

At the forum, Won Shi-youn, a National Assembly Research Service researcher, introduced various well-dying systems in foreign countries and stressed the need to enact a similar law in Korea.

Commenting on the existing “Act to determine life-sustaining treatment,” Won said the law is confined to the role of specifying the responsibility of medical professionals for discontinuing life-sustaining treatment and procedures for determining the discontinuation of life-sustaining treatment while providing a legal basis for existing hospice operations instead of handling a wide range of areas and issues related to well-dying.

“The law only makes the issue of euthanasia and death with dignity intermittently and does not play an active role in creating a well-dying culture," she said.

In addition to building a quality medical and care system toward the end of life,  the nation should create a culture that prepares and determines the end of life, she added. 

Beyond life-sustaining treatment decisions, we cannot overemphasize the need to spread culture to prepare and decide in advance on the organization of life records, heritage, and relics, and listing cases, and the government policy to support it, Won added.

The research then called for providing death education by life cycle from children to the elderly and progress in legal and ethical debates related to euthanasia and death with dignity.

“The discussion of euthanasia and death with dignity cannot move forward amid continuous debates," Won said.

the controversy over euthanasia and death with dignity has become more heated since Rep. Ahn Kyu-baek of DPK proposed an amendment to the “Act on hospice, palliative care, and determining the life-sustaining treatment of dying patients” to introduce doctor-assisted death with dignity in June.

The bill calls for introducing doctor-assisted death with dignity for terminal patients suffering from unacceptable pain to allow them to end their own lives with the help of doctors.

also specified concrete procedures, permitting the implementation of doctor-assisted death with dignity if case one month passes after the designation of subjects and the subjects expressed their wishes for it with dignity to their doctors and two other specialists.

It also contained the provision to protect medical professionals by excluding them from the application of helping or abetting suicides under the Criminal Act.

Copyright © KBR Unauthorized reproduction, redistribution prohibited