The Patient Autonomy Act (病人自主權利法), which gives adult patients the right to create advance healthcare directives (AHD) regarding their preferences for medical care in the event they are rendered incapable of making such decisions, was passed by the Legislative Yuan late on Friday night.
The main focus of the legislation is to allow people with full capacity for civil conduct to create an AHD — a legal document stipulating their decisions regarding treatment they would want or not want to receive if unable to communicate their wishes — through advance healthcare consultation with physicians.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said it was the first patient self-determination legislation passed among Asian nations, which should be a significant improvement for patients’ rights, and is to come into effect three years from now.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
In the meantime, the ministry plans to launch a pilot program and gather medical professionals to discuss the details of the act.
The legislation stipulates that before a decision can be reflected on a person’s National Health Insurance card — officially validating their AHD — the person must accept advance healthcare consultation services provided by healthcare facilities and obtain the notarized signatures of two witnesses with full capacity for civil conduct and the medical professionals on the consultation team recorded in the AHD.
Five incapacitating medical conditions can trigger the use of an AHD: a terminal disease prognosis; an irreversible coma; a permanent vegetative state; severe dementia; and government-stipulated medical conditions that result in unbearable pain or are incurable diseases with no alternative treatment.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
At least two physicians specializing in the exhibited condition and a palliative care team must confirm the condition before the AHD goes into effect.
To protect healthcare professionals that might be worried about the law, the ministry said the act stipulates that healthcare facilities or physicians can choose not to enforce the AHD based on their professional opinion, and those who terminate treatment or life-sustaining measures in accordance with an AHD would not bear criminal or civil liabilities.
In addition, the law stipulates that a patient’s family members cannot interfere with treatment provided in accordance with an AHD, the ministry said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Yu-hsin (楊玉欣), who proposed the legislation, said the act protects patients’ right to know, choose and refuse medical treatment, but does not validate euthanasia, because medical professionals are still prohibited from providing substances that would kill a patient.
While patients often need family members to consent to medical treatment in their stead, the act allows unmarried people, same-sex couples and people without families to commission an individual they trust to provide guidance on their wishes in extreme situations.
However, the opinions of healthcare professionals regarding the act are polarized, said Taiwan Medical Association director-general and KMT Legislator Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉), who urged the ministry to discuss the details of AHD enforcement rules with specialists before the act goes into effect.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS