The Ministry of Social Affairs plans to allow each person to note on the health portal the extent to which they wish to be kept alive and, for example, resuscitated.
Modern medicine can do a lot to keep a person alive, even in a hopeless situation. In recent years, however, on the initiative of doctors, there has been discussion about whether this end of life is dignified and satisfies the person’s wishes.
According to Katrin Elmet, one of the leaders of the discussion, senior doctor at the Tartu University Clinic and professor of ethics, most doctors focus on preserving the patient’s life.
“Real life is such that for many people living with a low or low quality of life is unacceptable. In fact, this declaration of will is created for those people for whom the quality of life is significantly more important than the length of life. That the life they have has to be acceptable to them and of quality. Many people don’t want to exist without the ability to make decisions,” Elmet said.
Therefore, according to Elmet, many still want to determine how far doctors can go to preserve life while they are still healthy.
The doctor emphasizes that the declaration of wishes at the end of life must be carefully studied and drawn up in collaboration with the doctor.
“Currently it is possible to make a declaration of will at the end of life, you have to do the formalities with a notary, but he doesn’t, whether it is an emergency situation or if the person is no longer able to express himself – he is not available for a doctor,” said Health Minister Riina Sikkut (SDE).
The doctors have put together their proposals and the Ministry of Social Affairs plans to make the necessary preparations this year, so that in the future it will be possible to record in the health portal which treatments or aids a person will give up upon hospitalization. end of life. There the writing is based only on the situation in which the patient is no longer able to express her wishes.
“Nowadays it is often not possible to define the end of life as a person wants it, because it is not legally binding to write it down somewhere, so that he or she can think the same way about medical personnel, close ones “Sikkut said.
According to the minister it is necessary to make some changes to the law and then it will be possible to order a corresponding IT solution. According to Sikkut, the necessary preliminary work has been done and there is also a political will, because the declaration of will for the end of life is also written in the coalition agreement.
“Society should have long since matured so that patients receive treatment according to their will. Do I want to be kept alive if I am not capable of making decisions or if I do not want to do so? I must have the right to decide on this. If I want to be killed by euthanasia, this is already a more difficult issue, for which Estonian society is not yet ready,” Elmet said.
2024-01-02 16:52:00
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