earticle

영어

According to the national statistics, many Japanese people wish to die by “Death with Dignity (DWD)” and/or “Natural Death (ND)”, however, there are no choices available for them to do so. Most of them go to hospital to end lives and/or to get the Palliative Care. Though “DWD” ”Euthanasia” have been being discussed at, the court so far in Japan, we still have not had the precedent to make it use. On the contrary, DWD and Euthanasia have faded away because of the medical development. In this presentation I firstly examine the judicial precedents in Japan and argue how the unbearable pain and self-determination have been being discussed by referring two significant legal cases. Secondly, I discuss about the physician’s determination by referring two trial records, the Tokai University’s case and the Kawasaki Kyodo Hospital’s case. Especially the precedent of Tokai University’s case which made physicians scared to commit DWD and/or Euthanasia gave us a significant definition regarding Euthanasia. Finally, I analyze the advanced direction and the medical futility and conclude that we should accumulate much more data and evidences concerning those concepts.