South Korea's highest court ordered a hospital to heed a family's request to suspend life support for a 76-year-old woman in a coma, a landmark ruling that heralded a shift in South Korean attitudes on death.
Societal mores and laws in the country have largely been shaped by Confucian ideals that call for preserving and honoring the body. As recently as 2004, two doctors who took a severely brain damaged patient off life support were convicted of "abetting murder" and received suspended prison terms.
But public sentiment has shifted in recent years; a 2008 survey indicated a majority of South Koreans favor stopping life support for the terminally ill.
In February, a group of lawmakers proposed a "right to die with dignity" bill, but parliament has yet to vote on it for fear of a backlash from South Korea's sizable Christian and Buddhist communities.
The 76-year-old patient at the heart of Thursday's Supreme Court ruling has been in a vegetative state since suffering brain damage in February 2008. Her family asked doctors at Yonsei University's Severance Hospital to remove her from life support, saying she had always opposed keeping people alive on machines if there was no chance of revival.
The hospital refused, citing a law that forbids physicians from taking patients off respirators or life support.
The children of the woman, identified only by the surname Kim, sued the hospital for the right to remove her from life support.
In November, a Seoul District Court sided with the family and ordered the patient's respirator removed. Severance Hospital appealed the ruling, but an appellate court upheld the verdict in February.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld both rulings and ordered the hospital to remove the woman from life support, Chief Justice Lee Yong-hun said, calling the family's request "just."
Continuing medical treatment on patients with no chance of revival "can tarnish people's dignity," Lee said.
The children said they were "grateful" for the ruling and that it would relieve their mother's pain, the lawyer said.
Severance Hospital said it would abide by the ruling after consulting with the family and its ethics committee. It said it would also consider taking other patients with terminal illnesses or in a persistent vegetative state off life support.
A Christian group said Thursday's ruling could set a dangerous precedent.
"We want to point out that this verdict might bring about the wrong perception that human beings can choose the timing of their deaths, and we have concerns that it could lead to a trend belittling human lives for economic reasons and other burdens," said Chang Ik-sung, an official at the National Council of Churches in Korea.
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Associated Press writer Jae-soon Chang contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 AP Features
