South Korea to allow euthanasia

Pakistan News.Net
Friday 28th November, 2008

A South Korean court has given the go-ahead for a request for euthanasia.

It will be the first time in South Korea that a court has been convinced it should take someone off life support at the family’s request.

A Seoul District Court has ordered feeding and ventilator tubes to be removed from a 75-year-old brain dead woman, after being told by doctors she has no chance of recovery.

The landmark ruling has rekindled debate on euthanasia in South Korea, as current laws ban any form of assisted suicide, seeing it instead as murder.

In 2004 a family was convicted of murder for removing life support systems from a brain-dead relative.

A doctor was charged with aiding them.

In 2007, a father was given a four-year suspended jail term for the removal of a respirator from his brain-dead son.

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