The Ministry of Health and Welfare should strive to have its regulations and policies conform to the Patient Autonomy Act (病人自主權利法) passed last year to prevent retired people from teaching, civil service and military backgrounds from being kept on life support so their children can benefit from their 18 percent preferential interest rate on savings, the Control Yuan said yesterday.
The Control Yuan issued the remarks in a report by Control Yuan members Kao Feng-hsien (高鳳仙) and Chiang Chi-wen (江綺雯).
National Yang-Ming University Hospital doctor Chen Hsiu-tan (陳秀丹) told the legislature in November that a retired dean had been kept on life support and subjected to ineffective treatments for seven or eight years, the report said.
The man’s children refused to remove life support systems because of the dean’s pension and the 18 percent preferential interest rate that applies to teachers, civil service personnel and military retirees, Chen said in the report.
“Despite the legislature passing the act last year, which allowed patients to decide beforehand whether to be kept on life support, doctors who act according to a patient’s decision to terminate life support or to forgo medical treatment are still punished according to the Hospice Palliative Care Act (安寧緩和醫療條例),” the report said.
However, if doctors or medical establishments ignore the patient’s wishes, they are not subject to any legal consequences, the report said.
This encourages medical professionals to act against the patient’s wishes and is a grave affront to the spirit of the Patient Autonomy Act, it added.
The ministry must take heed of the gravity of the situation and pass measures to support the Patient Autonomy Act and allow patients’ decisions on whether to accept extraordinary medical aid to be respected, the report said.
In addition, although the ministry has implemented a variety of hospice care measures and allowed terminally ill patients to undergo treatment at home, few have applied for such care, it said.
The ministry should step up promotion of hospice care at home or within a hospice community to patients or their representatives, the report said.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a