Five years after the implementation of the life-sustaining treatment decision system, it has been revealed that 1.64 million people have written advance directives refusing life-sustaining treatment. The life-sustaining treatment decision system allows terminal patients to discontinue meaningless life-sustaining treatments and was enacted through the Life-Sustaining Treatment Decision Act in 2018.
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare on the 2nd, as of last month, 1,644,457 people have registered advance directives refusing life-sustaining treatment. This is about 16 times the 100,529 people registered when the system was first implemented in 2018. So far, 268,223 cases of life-sustaining treatment discontinuation have been carried out in medical institutions.
The number of medical institutions (375) and registration institutions (626) participating in the life-sustaining treatment decision system has exceeded 1,000 in total. The Ministry of Health and Welfare has supported the system’s establishment in the field by introducing a regular health insurance fee for life-sustaining treatment discontinuation, reflecting related indicators in medical institution accreditation evaluations, and adding senior welfare centers as registration institutions for advance directives.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to analyze the achievements so far, prepare implementation plans for each task, and establish the 2nd Comprehensive Plan for Life-Sustaining Treatment (2024?2028) next year. The Ministry stated, "We will make national efforts to promote the sound spread of the life-sustaining treatment decision system for a dignified end of life and to expand the end-of-life care system."
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