Taiwan Church News
3473 Edition
September 17 – 23, 2018
Topical News
Local Church Members Introduced To Patient Right To Autonomy Act In Taiwan
Reported by Chiu Kuo-rong
On September 11, Ms Lo Hui-quen, a psychological physician of MacKay Memorial Hospital’s Consulting Center, is invited to introduce the impending Patient Right to Autonomy Act, which is planned to be effective from January 6 next year, to the women ministry committee of the eastern district of Chi-Hsin Presbytery.
Citing a recent family conflict on the critically-ill patient’s autonomy right on life and death, between a popular romance female novelist and her husband’s first-marriage-children, Ms Lo points out all these family clashes are all due to the legal limit of current Taiwan’s Hospice Palliative Care Act which stipulates all necessary medical practices, like Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation(CPR), has to be carried on unless the patient’s life is declared by doctor at the brink of death.
Ms Lo urges the audience to learn more about the content and purpose of Patient Right to Autonomy Act. “Let us discuss early with family and doctor, when we are still healthy with clear consciousness, on how to deal our medical treatment facing life or death. This new act is a very complete medical will for every one of us!”, Ms Lo says.
Translated by Peter Wolfe
