본문 바로가기
  • Home
Basic Search

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,  Jang, Seung Gyeong ORD ID 2,  KIM Claire Junga 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.

Journal Copyright Policy

BY-NC 아이콘

This license enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.

Statistics

  • 3,618 Viewed
  • 1,965 Downloaded

Tools

Issue List

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2025 are currently being built.

Basic Search Advanced Search