On November 28th 2008, death with dignity was first admitted in Korea. Sons and daughters instituted a suit to stop curing and life support for their mother who was in a comatose condition. The court presumed that the patient had the intention to stop the life preservation and approved death with dignity. Before this case, Korea had not admitted death with dignity. Some people insist that death with dignity should be enacted by law, but religious circles and objectors express their anxiousness. What are Chungdaites' opinions? Let's hear other CNU students' opinions.

    Last year, twenty-four thousand people died and almost one hundred twenty thousand family members suffered from the need to nurse their ailingmembers. Most people stopped working or changed their residence to that of a more inexpensive home due to the cost involved with the caring. Life is very valuable. Human beings have dignities which other living things don't have. But if the dignity is to be respected, do you think prventing death in such a situation could be desirable? I don't think so. In the old time, classifying the difference between death from sickness and natural death had little meaning as a result of the less-developed medical technology available. However, with the development of new technology, it has become possible for them to increase the extent of their lives, so that many people spend their last period of life in the hospital. I think that if we stop their natural death, it is same with harming their dignities. Therefore, we have to keep their dignity rather than expand their meaningless lives if they so want.
    Prior to this discussion, we need to clearly define its concept because many people sometimes misunderstand assisted-suicide as simply euthanasia. Assisted-suicide is the case where if the patients want to die without more medical care, they are allowed to die through the removal of the life supporting equipment. In addition to it, euthanasia is that where the doctor gave them a drug to shorten their lives directly with their family's approval.
    In other words, assisted-suicide is discontinuing the treatment and euthanasia is a given remedy to kill them fast without pain. There are many arguments, in respect of the religious and moral problems, though it is allowed in some countries like America, Japan, British, Switzerlandand so on. If it is allowed in Korea, when they are about to die, they can give life to other people by donating their internal organs and also, we can save enormous human and material cure resources used in meaningless remedy.
    If someone stops breathing, the doctor can revive him by giving the CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), but in case of a terminal cancer patient, it is impossible for the doctor to revive the patient's life by just doing it. If it is possible, it just relies on drugs and soon his heart will stop again. From the patient's standpoint, it is such an awful pain. Most patients don't want to prolong their agony. That is, it isn't possible to recover. According to a survey, more than 80% of terminal cancer patients really want to die at home peacefully without medical care. Therefore, if they want, assisted-suicide will help them. 

By   Yun Geoun-ji   /  Junior
Dept. of English Language & Literature