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Updated Friday, June 18, 2010 10:05 am TWN, The China Post news staff Cabinet oks right to dieAfter the amendment to the rules are ratified by lawmakers, patients can put such a notice on their national health insurance (NHI) cards. Such notice will possess legally binding power like a formally written affidavit, according to the rules initiated by the Department of Health (DOH). DOH officials said it is the natural duty for all medical workers to try their best to help and save all patients. However, there are still limitations on the effects of emergency medical efforts despite of the advancement of medical science and instruments, they acknowledged. They said it would only aggravate the suffering and pain of certain patients when intrusive, but futile, medical rescue efforts are made. While the written affidavits on giving up continuing medical treatment are not always readily available, medical workers would be able to know the patients' wishes through the NHI cards that are carried all the time by almost all people living in Taiwan, they explained. As of the end of May, 40,252 people in Taiwan have made clear their wish of refusing emergency medical treatment by adding a note onto their NHI cards. But there are still many more who have not yet taken such action. More than 40,000 patients die of cancer alone each year in Taiwan, according to DOH statistics. About 70 percent of terminally ill patients have the wish of not receiving continuing medical treatment, said the officials. Patients may add the notice to their NHI cards at hospitals or register at the branch offices of the Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) in their neighborhoods, they said. When the patients are incapable of expressing their wishes, their family can relay their wishes for them, they said. Patients who have made such registration can always make inquiries at the bureau branches or service centers to verify or confirm their own wishes, the officials. They stressed the new rules will safeguard patients' rights and also respect their wishes. The patients and their family can always change the wishes if they decide to delete the wish, enabling the hospitals to mount medical rescue efforts, the officials added. Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here Comments June 18, 2010 xaviermariongo@ Reply I hope this law regarding Euthanasia will not be abused in the immoral way and turn some of our physicians into Dr. Kavorkians. Statutes and laws limiting the powers of physicians should likewise be initiated before this "right to die" clause be signed into law--less some crazeee doctors try playing Dr. Frankenstein!!! June 18, 2010 johnny.brian@ It is a very hard decision to make whether to allow love ones to leave peacefully or try to revive him/her with advanced medical technology. Before I answer my own question, I need to know to value my love ones when they are still living healthily. Treasuring each day is worthy. June 18, 2010 the_alliance47@ First Taiwan upholds the death penalty. Now it is pushing for physician-assisted suicide. What's next? June 20, 2010 qing2140@ I think it's a good policy. These patients have right to decide how to end their lives. If giving up continuing medical treatment can ease their suffering in the end of life, maybe we should just let them go. June 20, 2010 carol@ The only educated comments you are going to receive is from people who have lived through the agonizing experience of losing a loved one to perpetual protracted suffering . .That ignorant comment regarding Dr. Kevorkian reflects the mind of inexperience. Taiwan is moving in the right direction, as the world slowly evolves toward compassion and people shift their focus away from the fear of dying . . Carol loving, author My Son, My Sorrow: The Tragic Tale of Dr. Kevorkian's Youngest Patient p.s. I love Taiwan! June 20, 2010 in.sanxia@ If you have a heart attack, or stroke, you will likely die before the body movers (ambulance in Taiwan) gets you to the hospital. How about a right to life? June 23, 2010 carltanong@ @alliance_47Here we called it Mercy Killing. If the terminally ill patient wishes to go peacefully because he/she cant withstand or endure the pain or suffering he/she sustain from his/her illness. If COMATOSE occur, the immediate family will decide the fate of their loved one. The notice of the NHI card is the best way to let the patient wishes to implement the Mercy Killing. Set aside the difference between patients and criminals. June 25, 2010 xaviermariongo@ @carol Everybody has the right to express his/her point of views. You seem to be a "very educated" person. I’m not here to quarrel with ignoramuses like yourself !!! June 28, 2010 carltanong@ @xaviermariongoCarol is not ignoramuses as you said. Perhaps she is a doctor, a nurse, wife, a mother, a close relative or an “author” that experienced as a living witness of a dying terminal ill patient who suffer extensive pains and no hope to survive or in other cases of dying. Only waiting for death in a matter of few hours, days, weeks or months. I assume she encounter such as a witness from a dying patient with terminal illness that crying for help to end his/her own life. Frankly speaking, I am the one that give the doctor the green signal to perform the Mercy Killing for my own terminal ill brother that suffered from colon cancer. And I’m the youngest in the family. Nobody in the family blamed me for what I done. Believe me, my friend. I carltanong know what is Right is Right. Wrong is Wrong. July 1, 2010 the_alliance47@ carltanong@ wrote: Americans call it "physician-assisted suicide," you call it "mercy killing," but whatever it is called, it is still killing. The bigger picture is that through these policies, the culture of death prevails. When people do not see anything morally wrong with killing, society crumbles.@alliance_47 Here we called it Mercy Killing. If the terminally ill patient wishes to go peacefully because he/she cant withstand or endure the pain or suffering he/she sustain from his/her illness. If COMATOSE occur, the immediate family will decide the fate of their loved one. The notice of the NHI card is the best way to let the patient wishes to implement the Mercy Killing. Set aside the difference between patients and criminals. July 2, 2010 xaviermariongo@ @alliance_47So rightly said. I second the motion and I rest my case. Amen July 3, 2010 dmw1955@ Hmmm, the words "When the patients are incapable of expressing their wishes, their family can relay their wishes for them" worries me more than a little. I hope unscrupulous families will not use this as a way to get rid of elderly patients who can not express their wishes because of dementia or whatever. |
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