[A Sip of Books] Medical Ethical Insights Emerge from 'Saranaem'

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of the book itself, while others instantly reach the reader's heart, creating a point of connection with the book. We introduce such meaningful sentences excerpted from the book. - Editor's note

The author, a medical ethicist, identifies eight of the most controversial medical issues in Korea, sharply divided according to individual perspectives. These include life-sustaining treatment, abortion, dementia care, infectious diseases, genetic modification, health tax, medical privacy, and the patient/caregiver-medical professional relationship, covering a wide range of fields. Through real cases and stories from movies, novels, and dramas, the book examines historical, scientific, philosophical, and economic backgrounds and the theories applied to them. This helps readers understand medical ethics not as "someone else's problem" but as "my problem."

"Ethics" inherently carries the premise that it must operate in reality. Medical ethics is especially so. Abstract discussions detached from reality are meaningless in medical ethics. Medical ethics should apply theoretical discussions to reality and solve problems within that reality. (That is why it is considered a representative field of applied ethics.) However, solving real-world problems here does not mean making a binary decision by judging right or wrong. Such decisions should be left to the realm of law. Medical ethics merely endures the realities silently. From that "endurance," medical ethical insight emerges.

The euthanasia theories we have examined so far are just theories and are far from addressing the question of what actually helps patients. To find ways to reduce patient suffering, one must look at reality and properly understand the patient's needs. This cannot be achieved through sociological surveys. Above all, it is about understanding the patient in front of you. The patient must understand their own situation, correct their collapsing life, and adapt to new relationships. The patient, who is experiencing great confusion in the storm of illness, is precisely the one who must find ways to understand themselves and receive help.

To know the needs and values of the other person and to convey our situation, a "story" is inevitably necessary. If decisions are made or conveyed abstractly without a story, we cannot understand the other person nor know what decisions are for their benefit. For decision-making to be supported according to the needs of the person involved and for such decisions to actually be made, one must thoroughly understand their situation. If decisions are not based on understanding, it is not decision-making support but merely surrogate decision-making, where the person's issues are controlled by others. When we talk about supporting dementia patients, if the goal is to help the patient's decisions, we must first listen to their story and enter into the context of their life.

(Written by Kim Junhyuk / Humanist)