The amendments to the Tranquil and Moderate Medical Treatment Act (安寧緩和醫療條例) passed the first reading in the legislature yesterday, further securing the right of terminally ill patients to refuse resuscitation.
The amendments stipulate that if a patient has been diagnosed by two physicians to be suffering from a terminal disease, he or she can request in writing that life-support equipment be removed or that CPR be suspended should either measure be merely prolonging pain and delaying an inevitable death.
But if the patient is under 20 years of age, the signing of such a document should be approved by his or her legal guardians.
After stating such a wish in a "living will," patients are then allowed to die a passive and natural death. The patient's relatives would not be permitted to make the decision on his or her behalf.
The "natural death act," however is not applied to comatose patients because they are unable to express their wishes.
In addition, the legislature's Sanitation, Environment and Social Welfare Committee yesterday required that the Department of Health make efforts to raise the awareness of the concept of natural death in a bid to encourage and educate the public to state in writing their willingness to refuse life-extending medical care.
This might help reduce medical disputes between physicians and patients' relatives, the committee said.
To address the problem that such a document might not be easily on hand when an emergency occurs, TSU lawmaker Chien Lin Whei-jun (
In response, Minister of Health Lee Ming-liang (李明亮) said that the department will take the proposal into consideration and that he personally hoped to implement the suggestion when health insurance cards equipped with IC chip technology are issued in 2004.
The Tranquil and Moderate Medical Treatment Act was pas-sed on May 23, 2000.
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