• Hospice
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• s.76
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• pp.2-7
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• 2023

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.140-146
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• 2008

Purpose: Sooner of later, end-of-life care decision-making will unfold and be settled during the professional lives of medical students. However, there is prevalent ambiguity and uncertainty between the palliative treatment and euthanasia. We conducted this survey to investigate attitudes of medical students towards end-of-life making decisions, and to find out which factors primarily influenced the attitudes. Methods: A study was conducted among medical students at one university, the Republic of Korea. A written questionnaire was sent to all the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-year medical students. It presented 5 statements on end-of-life decision-making. Students were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with each statement. Results: The response rate was 74.4%, and 267 questionnaires were analyzed. Percentages of agreement with each statements on Voluntary active euthanasia (VAE), Physician assisted suicide (PAS), Withholding life-sustaining management, Withdrawing life-sustaining management, and Terminal sedation (TS) was 37.1%, 21.7%, 58.4%, 60.3%, and 41.6%, respectively. The grade of students, religious activity, and educational experience were determinant factors. Agreement on each statements was higher in the low religious activity group than in the high religious activity group. Agreement on TS was higher among 3rd year students during their clerkship than among 1st and 2nd year students. Age of students and the experience of dying-people care had no significant influence. Conclusion: In end-of-life decision-making, religious and educational factors influenced medical students' attitudes. Especially, the experience of education during clerkship had significant influence on the attitude. Proper teaching on end-of-life decisions should further be considered during medical students' clerkship.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.67-96
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• 2022

"Aid in Dying" means that when a decision-making patient suffers from an incurable disease, a drug that can speed up death is prescribed by a doctor and used to lead to death. Since the suspension of life-sustaining treatment was institutionalized based on human dignity and patient autonomy, the question of whether assisted death can be legally justified in relation to the right to receive medical help to shorten one's life to die with dignity has recently been actively discussed. In Korea, since the suspension of life-sustaining treatment was institutionalized by the enactment of the Life-sustaining Treatment Decision Act in 2016, an amendment to the Life-sustaining Treatment Act was recently proposed to legalize Aid in Dying. The global trend is that human "Right to Die" is discussed in the division of life and death, from the suspension of life-sustaining treatment to assisted death, and again in the order of euthanasia. In this paper, we started discussing dignified death and institutionalized patients' right to self-determination, looked at the controversy in the United States, which legislated assisted death in many states since the 2000s, and analyzed the main contents of California's End of Life Option Act and the data after enforcement. The strict requirements for Aid in Dying, such as voluntary confirmation of patients' intentions and doctors' obligation to provide information, and the results of California's Aid in dying system, composed of relatively diverse races, were reviewed.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.27-33
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• 2024

In this article, this study examines the issue of "Physician-assisted Suicide" and how Ramon Sampedro asserts his right to a dignified death through litigation. Ramon, the protagonist of the movie <The Sea Inside> is a patient, severely paralyzed man who has spent more than 26 years in bed. The only thing he can do is verbally ask his family for help. Ramon can no longer support this worthless existence, so he pursues death with dignity. Ramon files a lawsuit to authorize death with dignity within a legal framework, but is denied on the grounds that life is a duty. Ramon eventually fulfills his desire for death with dignity with the help of his friends. Ramon sets up a camera to document the process of his death and introduces the cyanide, which is used in assisted dying, by inhaling cyanide in front of the camera and dying quietly. Although Ramon is not a terminally ill patient, who can blame him for practicing death with dignity as he chooses to do so. We will need to work to build social consensus and legislate for death with dignity for seriously ill patients like Ramon.