소위 연명의료결정법의 법적 쟁점 및 과제-환자중심의료를 중심으로-

Abstract

The last court judgments on the cases at Boramae Medical Center and Severance Hospital (the case of Grandma Kim) have drawn the attention of the public in the meantime. Based on this, amidst the enhanced attention of the national public on the suspension of the life-prolongation treatment, it is very much worthwhile that the so called Act on Decision for Life-prolongation Treatment of Patients has been in effect after enactment. In this respect, we can recognize the value of the Act in that it has established the systematic and comprehensive statutory provisions for the patients subject to the life-prolongation treatment including the hospice by institutionalizing the decision of patients in the dying process on the life-prolongation treatment based on the specification of the basic principles related to the life-prolongation treatment, the administration system for the decision on life-prolongation treatment and the particulars necessary for the decision on the life-prolongation treatment and fulfillment thereof. However, a diversity of legal controversies can be raised for the 「Act on Decision for Life-prolongation Treatment of Patients」 in relation to the right of patients for autonomous decisions, the provisions for the title and definitions, the decision for suspension of life-prolongation treatment and the deputy thereof, the exemption of responsibility of the medical personnel and others. Moreover, once the Act has been enacted, whereas the true value of the Act can be realized only if the effective protection devices can be enforced in the correct way, there can be identified several problems in relation to the enforcement of the Act. Among these can be included the problems related to reservation, the right for autonomous decisions, the imposition of penalty and the written decision related to life-prolongation treatment. This thesis reviews the major contents of the above 「Act on Decision for Life-prolongation Treatment of Patients」, the legislation cases in foreign countries, the plans for improvement and others on the occasion of the enforcement of the above Act on Decision for Life-prolongation Treatment of Patients which even gives the impression of being made in an awkward way without sufficient proper deliberation despite the long-time controversies surrounding the legislation. Based on these, the purpose of this study consists in the presentation of the particulars to be added in legislation in the future and the recommendations for improvement by chiefly reviewing the controversies and problems related to the 「Act on Decision for Life-prolongation Treatment of Patients」 on top of the fundamental framework known as the patient-oriented medical care. To this end, the thesis has been organized in the order of I. Foreward, II. Comparative Legal Review, III. Overview of Act on Decision for Life-prolongation Treatment of Patients, IV. Legal Controversies Related to Act on Decision for Life-prolongation Treatment of Patients, V. Challenges and VI. Concluding Remarks. In summary, though the Act on Decision for Life-prolongation Treatment of Patients is a critical Act for resolution of the related problems including the requirements and procedures for suspension of life-prolongation treatment, since there are several problems in reation to the Act, it is the conclusion of this thesis that it would be desirable to overcome these limitations.