Korea to debate assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Kim Eun-young reported for the Korean Biomedical Review that Rep. Ahn Kyu-baek of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) introduced a bill called the "Act on Assisted Dying with Dignity” on Friday July 5.

Eun-young explained the proposed assisted dying bill:

The new legislative bill calls for requiring those who wish to receive assisted dying to apply to the Assisted Dying Review Committee to determine eligibility while establishing a review committee under the minister of health and welfare to deliberate and decide it.

A person can carry out assisted suicide one month after the date of determination of eligibility after the person has expressed his or her desire for assisted dying to his or her family doctor and two specialists. In this case, the physician who assists the person in dying is excluded from the application of the criminal law that bans aiding and abetting a suicide.

The bill also includes a punishment clause, stating that if a person who worked for the management organization and the assisted dying review committee leaks information about the implementation of assisted dying, he or she will be punished by imprisonment for up to three years or a fine of up to 30 million won ($215,830).

Besides, it added new provisions on consultation with a psychiatrist, the right of withdrawal, which allows the person to cancel the decision to end their life at any time, and the prohibition of disadvantage to the person who died as a result of the implementation of assisted dying and the recipients of insurance benefits or pensioners.

The Assisted Dying Review Committee will have 25 members, more than half of whom will be medical professionals, reflecting the medical community’s opinion.

The assisted suicide movement introduces bills that they believe can get passed. The assisted suicide movement then works to amend and expand the legislation. The reality is that it is harder to legalize assisted suicide than to expand the law once it is legal.

Eun-young explained that a previous bill was introduced in June 2022 titled an: “Act on decision-making for patients in hospice, palliative care and the end-of-life process.” Some experts had pointed out that it was inappropriate to debate issues related to life-sustaining treatment alongside issues related to assisted suicide.

The Korean Biomedical Review reported in July 2022 that the Korean Medical Association strongly opposes euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Korean Medical Association strongly opposes assisted suicide bill

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Korean Biomedical review reported that the Korean Medical Association (KMA) expressed serious concerns about a proposed bill to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide. They expressed that legalizing assisted suicide will permit legal suicide.

Rep. Ahn Gyu-back of the opposition Democratic Party proposed the bill to legalize assisted suicide and exempt the doctor from criminal charges of aiding a suicide but it also confuses assisted suicide with euthanasia.

The Korean Biomedical review reported that the KMA consulted their membership and stated on Friday July 8 that there are diverse social views among physicians in Korea and no social consensus exists on the issue. They also encouraged the government to:

expand the scope of hospice and palliative care to improve patients' quality of life and provide psychiatric and psychosocial support.

The KMA provided constructive criticisms of the bill, the process and assisted suicide. They were concerned that:

• The committee examining the bill may allow suicides without objective evaluations.
• The legal definition in the bill is ambiguous between murder and assisted suicide.
• The bill defines "people eligible for assisted death with dignity" as terminally ill patients but "terminally-ill patient" has no social or medical definition.
• Adding assisted suicide will hamper the consistency of the law and cause confusion for physicians and people
• The bill conflicts with the Suicide Prevention Act.

Korea needs to consider the horrific experience with legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide (MAiD) in Canada and reject following a similar social experiment in Korea.

Korean has not legalized euthanasia or assisted suicide

By Alex Schadenberg
International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Korean Times reported that the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee voted in favor of a "death with dignity" bill.

In the western world "death with dignity" is a euphemism for euthanasia or assisted suicide.

Korea has not legalized euthanasia or assisted suicide but rather Korea is passing a law outlining the rules for withholding or withdrawing of medical treatment. The Korean Times reported:

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.

The article refers to the withholding or withdrawing of medical treatment as passive euthanasia. This is an unfortunate use of a false and confusing term.

The withholding and withdrawing of medical treatment has been debated in Korea for many years.

To withhold or withdraw medical treatment from a person who is dying is not euthanasia or assisted suicide. When treatment is withheld or withdrawn, the patient may or may not die, but if the patient dies they die of their medical condition, which is a natural death. 

Important: The withholding or withdrawing of medical treatment must be differentiated from the withholding and withdrawing of basic care from a person who is incompetent and not otherwise dying. To intentionally deny basic care to a person who is not otherwise dying (such as food and water) is ethically the same as euthanasia. The person dies from intentional dehydration rather than dying from their medical condition.

South Korea did not legalize euthanasia.

By Alex Schadenberg
International Chair, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Yesterday, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) wrote a letter to the AFP news service stating that their report: S Korea legalizes euthanasia for terminally ill was wrong.

This is the statement that we sent to the AFP news service:

The following article from your news service is not clear, it says that South Korea will legalize euthanasia and then the article is about removing life support from terminally ill people. The article states: "They agreed that doctors could stop prolonged life-sustaining treatment, based only on prior written or oral statements from patients." 

It appears that South Korea has approved the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment which is not euthanasia. Euthanasia is the direct and intentional killing of a person for reasons of mercy. This has not been legalized in South Korea. 

The article doesn't refer to the issue of fluids and food, and therefore until I see the actual guidelines I must say that euthanasia has not being legalized in South Korea, but rather discontinuing life-sustaining treatment has been approved. 

You need to be more careful with your reporting because these ethical issues effect many people and if you incorrectly report on an issue you create confusion. 

Alex Schadenberg
International Chair, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Today I received the South Korean – End-of-life guidelines from a Korean physician. It is clear that S Korea did not legalize euthanasia. The guidelines concern the rules that must be followed before a physician can withdraw or withhold medical treatment.
The guidelines state:

• They are for terminally ill patients, but do not apply to PVS patients, unless the PVS patient is terminally ill.
• They are for extraordinary treatments only (eg. Respirators, CPR). Ordinary treatments such as fluids and food should be maintained.
• Apply to adult patients, based on prior written statements. 
• The statement should be prepared after counseling with doctor(s) with a 2 week mandatory deliberation period.
• Oral statements of patients are accepted, when it can be proven.
• Can be withdrawn anytime.
• A national review committee on end-of-life care will be established.
• Hospital ethics committees on end-of-life care will be established.

The guidelines did not approve:

• Surrogate decision making is not allowed for adult patients, but partially allowed for minors and people with mental disabilities.

It is clear that euthanasia has not been legalized in S Korea. The guidelines do not approve of euthanasia by dehydration either.

It is also clear that the South Korea guidelines are more cautious than most national end-of-life guidelines in the western world. While I share the concern about how "terminally ill" may be defined, these guidelines do not appear to be designed to open the floodgate.

It appears that the AFP news service is intentionally confusing the public or it does not understand what euthanasia is. AFP also wrongly stated that the German court recently approved euthanasia. AFP needs to publish a retraction of their incorrect news article.

Link to the article - S.Korean legalises euthanasia for terminally ill: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gl3mqDEVPwTzmEq1B_nKsBLg8TGA

South Korea did not legalize euthanasia.

This is the letter that I sent to the AFP news service who incorrectly reported that South Korea legalised euthanasia.

The following article from your news service is not clear, it says that South Korea will legalize euthanasia and then the article is about removing life support from terminally ill people. The article states: "They agreed that doctors could stop prolonged life-sustaining treatment, based only on prior written or oral statements from patients."

It appears that South Korea has approved the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment which is not euthanasia. Euthanasia is the direct and intentional killing of a person for reasons of mercy. This has not been legalized in South Korea

The article doesn't refer to the issue of fluids and food, and therefore until I see the actual guidelines I must say that euthanasia has not being legalized in South Korea, but rather discontinuing life-sustaining treatment has been approved.

You need to be more careful with your reporting because these ethical issues effect many people and if you incorrectly report on an issue you create confusion.

Alex Schadenberg
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Link to the article - S.Korean legalises euthanasia for terminally ill:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gl3mqDEVPwTzmEq1B_nKsBLg8TGA

South Korea takes measures to tackle suicide "disgrace"

South Korea has been inflicted by one of the highest suicide rates in the world, a suicide rate that is even higher than in Japan.

The government has decided to activate measures in 10 different government departments to lower their suicide rate. The complete plan will be released next week.

Actions will include:
- building screen doors on platform stops at train stations.
- tighter regulations on the sale of pesticides and other poisons.
- welfare payments will be improved.
- internet sites that encourage suicide will be blocked.

There needs to be an international policy of blocking websites that promote suicide. Japan, Britain, Australia, South Korea, Germany and more are now recognizing that websites that promote and counsel suicide are encouraging people who are depressed or suicidal to go ahead and commit suicide.

The instructions on these websites are causing copy-cat acts of suicide as well as encouraging group suicide.

Dr. Philip Nitschke, Australia's Dr. Death, has operated a website that provides instructions and counsels suicide. He has even distributed short - how to - video's on U- Tube.

Society needs to recognize the importance of protecting vulnerable people.

Link to the articles:
http://www.abc.net.au:80/news/stories/2008/09/01/2352533.htm?section=world

http://afp.google.com:80/article/ALeqM5g_fznfPOpubTseliNtgNEvI4yjvA