This is how many South Koreans have formally opted out of life-sustaining treatment so far.
📄 “No, thanks”: Since 2018, a law in South Korea has allowed people to refuse life-sustaining treatment once they are medically classified as being “in the end-of-life process.” In the first year alone, 86,000 cases were registered.
📋 Signed off by a doctor: In around 186,000 cases, physicians have formally documented which treatments should be withheld. Since the law took effect, life-sustaining treatment has been forgone in roughly 478,000 cases.
Watch: More than two-thirds of these decisions come from people aged 65 and over. In Seoul, policymakers are now debating whether such decisions should be allowed earlier—before patients lose the ability to decide for themselves.
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