Direction of the law and policy involved in futile medical treatment

Boramae Hospital case in 1997 raised a lot of disputes in regard to the stopping treatment, and it brought a lot of problems such as raising a defensive treatment prevalent, limiting the choices of patients and families, deepening conflicts between guardians and medical staffs, increasing social cost, and conflicting between systems. However, Korea does not have any legal or systematical mechanism to resolve those problems, thusthese problems have been more accelerated. These reverse functions that were caused by stopping prolonging life seem to disregard an ethnic side, these problems in regard to withdrawing medically futile treatments were examined by means of applying four principles of medical ethnics to prepare for the systematical direction in terms of law and policy. Legal and systematical innovation was needed to improve the right to decide by patients and their family, to substantiate health insurance, to supplement undeveloped medical field, to secure balance of expenditure for the finance of health insurance, and to justify withdrawing medically futile treatments. It is necessary to carry out withdrawing medically futile treatments even before the related law is passed from the point of medical organization"s view. Medical organization shall prepare a guideline and a performing plan with respect to writing an agreement form, standard of decision making and procedure, an organizational committee for withdrawing medically futile treatments and medical staff meeting. In addition, in order for voluntary participation within the medical organization, public relations and education should be maintained simultaneously. It is also necessary for the government should state basic regulations by means of organizing one chapter binding existing relevant laws such as MEDICAL SERVICE ACT and ACT ON BIOETHICS AND SAFETY. However, it is hard to comprehend all patients subject to withdrawing medically futile treatments due to the particularity and limitation of patients subject to the existing law. Therefore, preparing an independent law, so-called Act on withdrawing medically futile treatments, can be considered because there are other legislation cases in foreign countries and it can be easier when connecting hospices as a subtitling plan. Moreover, in order for successful try-out for withdrawing medically futile treatments, it should be essential not only education and public relations from the government, but also the fund to reduce an economical burden when continuing treatmentsope