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KMID : 1011120210140020059
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Bioethics Policy Studies
2021 Volume.14 No. 2 p.59 ~ p.82
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The Establishment and Operation of Institutional Ethics Committees in South Korea and their Management Plan to Guarantee Patients’ Self-Determination over Life-Sustaining Treatments
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Hwang Ji-Young
Lee Bom-Yee
Oh In-Hwan
Park So-Youn
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Abstract
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Institutional ethics committees play an important role in resolving various conflicts in clinical practices that are involved in deciding and implementing life-sustaining treatments and extending maximum respect to patients' self-determination. This study explores a plan to help the proper establishment of the program by identifying the current operation of and issues with the institutional ethics committees at the organizations where they were established or where they were yet to be installed. An online questionnaire survey was used in this study with 116 participating organizations where the ethics committees were established and 305 organizations where they were yet to be installed. The data were collected between November 4 and 14, 2019. The survey was filled out once by the administrative secretary of each institutional ethics committee. The survey revealed issues with the operation of institutional ethics committees, such as difficulty in educating new committee members, lowered work efficiency due to insufficient staffing, and a lack of financial support. The needed support for the organizations where institutional ethics committees were yet to be installed was for the provision of a manual on the operations of the ethics committee and staff for its efficient operation and education on 「Act on hospice and palliative care and decisions on life-sustaining treatment for patients at the end of life」 for committee members. Installing more institutional ethics committees and strengthening the patients' self-determination for life-sustaining treatments require further studies on the role of institutional ethics committees, the competencies of members, and qualitative management, including education.
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KEYWORD
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life-sustaining treatments, Act on hospice and palliative care and decisions on life-sustaining treatment for patients at the end of life, institutional ethics committee, self-determination, ethics counseling
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