A preview of the regulations to implement the Patient Right to Autonomy Act (病人自主權利法) is to be published by end of this month, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday.
Touted as the first of its kind in Asia, the legislation grants terminally ill people and some other patients the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment.
It was signed into law by then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in 2016.
Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Yang Yu-hsin (楊玉欣), one of the bill’s advocates, yesterday called a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, attended by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) and ministry officials, to discuss the law and its regulations.
Sports commentator Fu Da-ren (傅達仁) went to Switzerland to commit assisted suicide because there is no legal euthanasia in Taiwan, Chen said, adding that the act would partially address the issue.
Conflicts between patients and medical professionals over the extent of patient autonomy could become an issue and the government has to implement the act with care, she said.
Yang said that over the past 20 years, she had interviewed numerous terminally ill patients and their family members, and virtually everyone brought up the issue of suicide.
“Rather than seeing medicine as a tool for the indefinite extension of life that had lost its meaning, medical care should be more empathetic and help patients complete their lives with dignity,” she said.
The patient’s autonomy in the patient-doctor relationship should be protected, she said.
Lawmakers from across the political divide have worked together to draft the legislation and they are drafting regulations that would better implement the policy aspects of the law, she said.
The ministry in April published guidelines on living wills regarding medical treatment for patients and institutions, said Liu Yueh-ping (劉越萍), an official at the ministry’s Department of Medical Affairs.
The ministry also expects to complete the draft regulations for implementing the law and publish them before the end of the month, she said.
The ministry this year plans to establish one advanced healthcare directive consultancy for each of the nation’s 22 counties and cities, which would open their doors on Jan. 6 next year, when the law goes into effect, Liu said.
Social worker Yeh Yi-lin (葉依琳) said her institution, Taipei City Hospital, is the first of seven hospitals to participate in the act’s pilot program that began in 2016 and has so far enrolled 240 members.
Most of the men that participated in the program are aged 50 to 79, while the women are aged 40 to 69, she said.
In the draft regulations, medical institutions are responsible for giving advice regarding living medical wills, the cost of which is mostly not covered by the national health insurance, which could impede the law’s implementation, Yeh said.
“It is a right and a responsibility for each person to decide how to die and it is my recommendation for the government to create a National Health Insurance-funded credit system for advanced medical care planning,” she said.
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The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
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DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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