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KMID : 0986720180260010027
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Korean Journal of Medicine and Law
2018 Volume.26 No. 1 p.27 ~ p.73
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Global Trends in Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide
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Kim Seon-Taek
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Abstract
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Since last decades of the 20th century, especially from the beginning of the 21st century, it has been seriously discussed around the world whether competent, terminally ill patients, who suffer from unbearable pain, should have a right to get medical assist to end his/her life for a dignified and peaceful death. Accordingly, it has been controversial issue whether it should be legally permitted for the physicians to provide medical assistance in dying of their patients, that is, the ‘physician-assisted suicide(PAS)’ should be legalized. Some countries legalized PAS already, while in many other countries heated debate on this issue is underway. This article introduces the historical background and controversial issues concerning legalization of PAS. As for the United States, the relevant court’s decisions(Glucksberg case, Quill case), each state’s laws, and inter alia Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, which became a nationwide and worldwide model for legalizing PAS, are overviewed. Next, the background and criteria of laws legalizing PAS in Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Canada, Colombia, and Australia as well as relevant decisions(i.e. recent case of the federal administrative court of Germany, Carter case in Canada, and the case of the constitutional court in Colombia) are examined. This work aims to understand the problems and issues discussed in other countries in advance of forthcoming debate on legalizing PAS in Korea.
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KEYWORD
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Physician assisted suicide, Physician assisted dying, Medical assistance in dying, Human dignity, Quality of death, Death with dignity, Euthanasia
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