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Institutional Ethics Committees for Decisions on Life-sustaining Treatment in Korea: Their Current State and Experiences with their Operation

  • Korean Journal of Medical Ethics
  • Abbr : 의료윤리
  • 2019, 22(3), pp.209-233
  • DOI : 10.35301/ksme.2019.22.3.209
  • Publisher : The Korean Society For Medical Ethics
  • Research Area : Medicine and Pharmacy > General Medicine
  • Received : September 1, 2019
  • Accepted : September 9, 2019
  • Published : September 30, 2019

CHOI Jiyeon 1,  Seung Gyeong Jang 2,  Junga Kim ORD ID 3,  Ilhak LEE ORD ID 4

1연세대학교 일반대학원 의료법윤리학협동과정 박사과정
2연세대학교 의료법윤리학연구원
3이화여자대학교
4연세대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Institutional Ethics Committees are responsible for reviewing, consulting, and educating about matters related to life-sustaining treatment, these committees should play a substantial role in implementing the Act in each hospital. However, there are few such committees and their operations have been limited in many respects. In this article we report on a survey that was carried out to assess the difficulties faced by 63 committee administrators. We also conducted focus-group interviews with seven medical professionals or administrators working in health care institutions in which a committee has been established. Subjects were asked about the difficulties these committees face in advising on foregoing life-sustaining treatment. The operational problems that were reported include the following: difficulties in accessing patients’ records of decisions concerning life-sustaining treatment, obstacles in using Shared Ethics Committees, legal and administrative complexities in diagnosing the end-of-life process, the lack of expertise of committee members and administrators, manpower shortages on the committees, and medical professionals’ negative views of the Act’s procedures for life-sustaining treatment decision-making. In order to deal with these problems, we suggest the following solutions: improving the accessibility of patients’ life-sustaining treatment decisions, encouraging the use of Shared Ethics Committees, defining the qualifications and training requirements for Committee members, establishing better communications among committee members; creating an educational system for medical professionals in order to improve their understanding of the committees’ role; and developing standard operating procedures for the committees.

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