The South Korean government is reviewing the limits that have surfaced at hospitals over the eight years since its life-sustaining treatment decision system took effect, and will overhaul the framework. It plans to draw up recommendations by the end of the year after debating key issues, including when life-sustaining treatment may be withheld or withdrawn and how such decisions should be made for patients with no known family.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said on the 9th that it held the first meeting of a special expert committee on improving the system at Spaceshare Seoul Station Center 3, where it finalized the panel's operating plan, including the goals and scope of its discussions.
The committee was set up to examine the difficulties that have emerged in clinical practice since the system took effect in 2018 and to develop measures allowing patients, families and medical staff to use it more smoothly. It consists of 14 experts drawn from medicine, ethics, patient groups, the legal profession, religious communities and the media.
The panel aims to produce recommendations for reform within the year. Through regular meetings and expert presentations, it will hold in-depth discussions on major issues such as the timing of withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment and legal revisions needed for decisions involving patients with no known family.
Public opinion will also be gathered on the system through a citizens' panel to be convened by the Medical Innovation Committee in the second half of this year. The special committee plans to weigh reform measures by combining expert deliberations with the views collected from that public forum. "We will listen closely not only to expert discussions but also to the diverse views of citizens, and build reform measures that all citizens can trust on the basis of social consensus," Chairman Kim Jang-han said.
