Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/06
By: Huang Tzu-chiang, Lung Pei-ning and Lee Mei-yu
Taipei, Oct. 6 (CNA) Taiwan is the best place to die in Asia, according to the 2015 Quality
CNA file photo
of Death (QOD) Index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), leaping from 14th to sixth place on the index comparing end-of-life care in 80 countries.
The upper echelons of the index are dominated by wealthy European, Asia-Pacific and North American countries. The United Kingdom, which has integrated palliative care into its National Health Service, is at the top of the chart.
Taiwan’s sixth place makes it the highest Asian country on the list. In a society where talk of death is usually taboo, the integration of community engagement for palliative care education and the encouragement of talking about death through the use of mainstream and social media has helped Taiwan successfully increase public awareness of palliative care, according to the EIU.
Taiwan is one of the first few countries in the world to introduce a hospice palliative care system. In 2000, it passed the Hospice and Palliative Care Act, which provides its citizens with the right to issue do-not-resuscitate instructions. [FULL STORY]
