Any move toward legalizing assisted suicide in the nation should be made with caution and start from the grassroots, as it would be “improper” for the government to take the lead on the policy, Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) said yesterday.
Hsueh made the remarks at a meeting in the Legislative Yuan, where he took several questions relating to famed sculptor Ju Ming (朱銘), who died by suicide at 85 over the weekend following years of chronic health problems.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wen Yu-hsia (溫玉霞) said that Ju’s death and dozens of similar cases each year highlighted areas of Taiwan’s “long-term care” policies that still needed to be improved.
Photo: CNA
In making those reforms, the government should also consider the question of whether to legalize euthanasia, Wen said, but added that it would probably be difficult to reach a consensus at present.
New Power Party Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) asked to what degree such issues could be handled under current laws, such as the Hospice Palliative Care Act (安寧緩和醫療條例) of 2000 and the 2019 Patient Right to Autonomy Act (病人自主權利法), which guarantees patients’ right to a good death.
Citing the Netherlands as an example of a country that has legalized euthanasia while maintaining “extremely rigorous standards,” Chiu asked whether the health ministry should initiate conversations with various sectors of society on the topic.
Hsueh said that with euthanasia, the crux of the issue is that it does not just involve a person who is ill and wants to end their life, but also another individual who has to actively assist them.
As this responsibility would currently fall on medical personnel, there is significant controversy over whether it should be allowed, he said.
Many cases, like Ju’s, have complex backstories, and should not be automatically attributed to failures in long-term care policies, he said.
As for the legal and ethical side of the issue, the laws cited by Chiu are sufficient at least for passive situations, in which doctors do not provide life-extending care if that is what the patient wants, he said.
However, in terms of physician-assisted suicide, the problem is that both the Hippocratic Oath and the policies of the World Medical Association are firmly opposed to it, Hsueh said.
Therefore, even if there were a legal basis for euthanasia, there might not be medical professionals willing to take part, he said.
Hsueh also appeared wary of engaging with medical associations on the issue, saying it would be “a bit strange” for the health ministry to be in the position of trying to convince doctors to breach their own professional guidelines.
Because of this, Hsueh said he believes that any plans to change the legal status of euthanasia should be made with caution, and should proceed from the bottom up.
“The government should not be enthusiastically promoting euthanasia. Having the government take the lead [on the issue] would be improper,” Hsueh added.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do