Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/22
By: Chang Min-hsuan and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Nov. 22 (CNA) Taiwan's Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) on Friday included 11 rare diseases in the clinical conditions under which the Patient Right to Autonomy Act is applicable, giving those suffering from such illnesses the right to decide whether to continue life support or other treatment.

The Act, the first of its kind in Asia, came into effect on Jan. 6. It offers people the right to decide in advance what medical treatment or health care they accept when they are terminally ill, in an irreversible coma, in a permanent vegetative state, suffering from severe dementia, or in other disease conditions that the authorities determine are unbearable or incurable.

Such patients are entitled to the right to terminate life-sustaining treatment, as well as artificial nutrition and hydration, under the Act.

As part of its implementation of the Act, the ministry included 11 rare diseases in the definition of the disease conditions determined to be unbearable or incurable, after a series of expert meetings over the past year.    [FULL  STORY]