호스피스ㆍ완화의료 및 연명의료결정에 관한 법률의 쟁점과 향후 과제*

Abstract

This article examines some of the legal issues and future tasks related to The Hospice, Palliative Care, and Life-sustaining Treatment Decision-making Act. It is argued that the following issues should be resolved before the Act is enforced: the medical criteria involved in the definition of “dying patient,” the relationship between hospice and life-sustaining treatment, the writing of physician orders of life-sustaining treatment (POLST), the establishment and activation of hospice ethics committees, the facility and personnel requirements of Advance Directive Registry units, the legal effects of advance directive (AD), and the confirmation of AD and POLST. Additionally, the article identifies other issues that are in need of public debate and discussion: the use of feeding tubes, the double criteria problem of surrogate decisionmaking, the review of POLST made by proxy decision-makers, the Korean culture of family-oriented surrogate decision-making, the necessity of understanding the standards for surrogate decision-making, and ethics consultation.