CHILE
Sergio Zorrilla, a philosopher specializing in bioethics on the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of Santiago, said about persistent vegetative states, that of 20,000 people who have been in this state, maybe two will wake up, and they do not return to normal at all.”It makes no sense to prolong the suffering and the act of dying,” he argued, “because it not only hurts the person who is dying, but all of the patient’s loved ones as well. It makes no sense to prolong the agony when medicine can cure and heal other patients.
“A society that acknowledges euthanasia is completely different from a society that does not confront the problem of death and allows patients, and the elderly, to die with incredible suffering.”
SOUTH KOREA
7 in 10 Back Euthanasia
According to research conducted at Hallym University, 69% of 1,020 people surveyed were in favor of allowing doctors to stop treatment for patients in extreme pain from incurable diseases if the patients or families claim their right to die; 27.5% were opposed to it.
Of the respondents, 56.2% also agreed with active euthanasia, actually bringing about the patient’s death, as in the case of a lethal injection administered by a doctor; 39.1% were opposed.
Korean law prohibits any other medical personnel from giving up treatment of a patient when they know that such discontinuance would lead to their death. Last June, the Supreme Court sentenced a doctor and a third-year resident to one and a half years in jail, with a two year stay of execution, for discharging a patient in a coma from the hospital and letting the patient die.
Chile