英文摘要 |
On December 18, 2015, the Legislative Yuan of Taiwan has passed the Patient Right to Autonomy Act (PRAA). Three years later on January 6, 2019, the act is officially implemented. According to Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan Patient Right to Autonomy Act is the first of its kind among Asian nations, signifying the milestone of patient autonomy of the country. Nonetheless, although the ethical value of PRAA is to offer patient Right to decide on medical decision, how PRAA is designed matters contextually and culturally. In the United States, the three main goals of Patient Self Determination Act (PSDA) are providing education regarding individual's Right to accept or refuse treatment, promoting greater formulation of advanced directives (ADs) if one becomes incapacitated, and reducing end-of life treatment cost. Unlike the States, Taiwan designed its PRAA for three main objectives: respecting patient autonomy in medical decision, ensuring the Right to good death and improving physician-patient relationship. While western bioethical principles tend to regard principle of autonomy as self-based or individualistic autonomy, the Asian perspective distinctly adopts a family-based approach. This paper thus aims to explore how autonomy stimulates within different social and cultural context, specifically how intimate relationship of the family might affect the behavior of individual autonomy through examining PRAA and its comparison with PSDA. An east-west comparison is sought. |