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Life-sustaining medical treatments have been one of the important social issues over the past 20 years or so since the withdrawal of life-sustaining medical treatment at Boramae Medical Center in 1997. In February, 2016, the National Assembly passed the bills for Hospice and Palliative Care and Life-sustaining Medical Decision Law for dying patients. The law focusing on life-sustaining medical withdrawal decision and hospice and palliative care, is also called ��Well-dying law.�� Well-Dying is a comprehensive concept, which promotes a deeper understanding of death and consideration of different methods of death. However, life-sustaining medical withdrawal decision indicates no more than halting the life-sustaining medical treatment. It does not mean a beautiful end itself.
Life-sustaining Medical Decision Law, in Article 2, Clause 6, it states ��Hospice and Palliative Care means medical care conducted in physical, socio-psychological, and spiritual areas with a purpose of comprehensively evaluating and treating dying patients.�� There should to be a more definite investigation into why ��spiritual�� was mentioned here. According to WHO, hospice care is haracterized by holistic care on physical, socio-psychological, and spiritual areas. Spiritual care makes it possible for a dying patient to overcome the fear of death and face death comfortably and with dignity. But the law, while stating clearly that Hospice and Palliative Care means medical care conducted in physical, psychological, and spiritual areas with a purpose of comprehensively evaluating and treating dying patients, never mentions a comprehensive understanding of death. In hospice, spiritual aspect does not come after spiritual care, but WHO suggests because there is a spiritual aspect in death, spiritual care becomes important.
Therefore, the fact that hospice professional manpower does not include professionals in spiritual care is not the only problem. The law does not clearly suggest a comprehensive, holistic approach to death. Regarding this contemporary circumstances, Kubler-Ross, the founder of life and death studies, also notes that ��it is because there is no definition of death in a true sense.�� In preparing the Life-sustaining Medical Decision Law, our society only focused on the issues of life-sustaining medical treatments withdrawal and its medical and legal ramifications, ignoring the aspect of spiritual care. For the need for spiritual care, we should take a more comprehensive approach to death and an insightful understanding to death. It is only when we look at hospice care and death through a holistic approach in physical, socio-psychological, and spiritual aspects that we can understand the need for spiritual care.