Right-to-Die Laws May be Coming to Thailand

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The following appears in the BANGKOK POST:

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Health Bill Withdrawn from Second Reading

 

The controversial clause about patients' right to die in the National Health Bill Thursday sparked heated debate during the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) session.

 

NLA yesterday deliberated the bill in the second reading.

 

According to Section 10 of the bill, a person shall have the right to make a written statement declaring his or her intention not to receive medical treatments that serve only to delay his or her death in the terminal stage of his or her life, or not to receive the medical treatments for the purpose of ending the suffering from his or her illness. The statement shall be prepared in line with procedures and criteria prescribed by ministerial regulations.

 

NLA member General Chamlong Srimuang supported the patients' right to die, citing the case of the late monk Buddhadasa Bhikkhu as an example.

 

The famous monk, who passed away in 1993, made an express intention to pass away not using a respirator to cling on to life in the last stage of his life.

 

"However, his followers asked that the respirator be used. This is against his intention," Chamlong said.

 

Ampon said this legal clause, if enforced, would protect people's right to choose whether they wanted to live on.

 

However, NLA member Pathumporn Watcharasathien expressed concerns about the "terminal stage" in the provision.

 

"Who will define the terminal stage?" she questioned. She said some patients could live on much longer than what doctors previously estimated.

 

Pathumporn suggested that at least three specialists would be required for a comment that the patients were in the terminal stage of their lives.

 

NLA member Somkiat Onwimon complained that this clause was against doctor's ethics.

 

"How can a person is authorised to say that this or that person should die? It's abuse of human rights," he said.

 

After heated debate, the controversial clause managed to get the green light from NLA. However, the second reading of the National Health Bill still hit snags on several other sections.

 

"This bill contains many flaws," NLA member Borwornsak Uwanno said.

 

The Nation