Policy & Legislations

Life-Sustaining Treatment Plans

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Terms

Terminal
patients
Patients who have been diagnosed as expected to die within a few months from the doctor in charge and one medical specialist in the relevant field because there is no possibility of a fundamental recovery, and where symptoms gradually worsen despite proactive treatment
Patients
at the end
stage of life
Patients who have received a medical assessment from the doctor in charge and one medical specialist in the relevant field to be in a state of imminent death, in which there is no possibility of revitalization or recovery despite treatment, and where symptoms worsen rapidly
Life-
sustaining
treatment
Medical treatment by cardiopulmonary resuscitation, hemodialysis, administering anticancer drugs, mechanical ventilation and other medical treatments prescribed by Presidential Decree to a patient at the end stage of life, which merely extends the duration of the end stage of life without curative effects
Withholding
life-sustaining
treatment
Not performing life-sustaining treatment for the patient at the end stage of life from the beginning
Withdrawing
life-sustaining
treatment
Discontinuing life-sustaining treatment for the patient at the end stage of life, who has been receiving the treatment
Hospice/
Palliative
Care
Medical care provided to a terminal patient or patient at the end stage of life and his or her family for the purpose of comprehensively evaluating and providing treatment in physical, psychosocial, and spiritual domains, including pain and symptom relief