Research On The Legislative Basis Of Death With Dignity In China

Although the advancement of medical technology prolongs human life,it also leads to the question of the protection of end-of-life quality and human dignity brought about by ineffective treatment.With the aging of the population and the pressure brought by the high and scarce medical resources,the concept of death with dignity has begun to appear in Chinese society and has aroused concern.People's Congress and CPPCC members have been proposing the legislative suggestion of death with dignity for the past years.However,there is still a lack of a more comprehensive and objective study on whether or not our country has the legislative condition of death with dignity.The first part of this article explores the origin and development of the concept of death with dignity,and negates the practice of simply defining death with dignity as a refusal to life support measures.Based on the localization context,it reconstructs the concept of "death with dignity",and differentiates and analyzes the concepts related to euthanasia,medical suicide,and living will.The second part is to analyze the legal basis of death with dignity.This article points out that the right basis of death with dignity is the right to life and freedom stipulated by international human rights conventions and constitutions.It is reflected in the medical context on the patients' right to informed consent,and is subject to the principles of public interest,legal paternalism and public order and good customs.In the third part of this paper,we analyze the Confucian,Taoist and Buddhist views on life and death and traditional filial piety culture from the cultural level,pointing out that the Confucian concept of "happy life and avoid death" hinders people from facing up to death,and the traditional filial piety culture as a social evaluation restricts the choice of patients' families.In the fifth part of this paper,nearly 700 people in L city were surveyed by self-designed questionnaire.The research shows that quite a number of people have expressed their recognition and support for the concept of death with dignity,and hope to ensure this choice through legislation,but as a family member of patients,the role is still influenced by traditional filial piety concept.Finally,this paper argues that the cultural shackles of the legislative basis of death with dignity still need to be broken.Whether the legislative conditions of death with dignity are satisfied depends on the legislator's functional orientation of death with dignity legislation.