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Authors: Arrie Budhiartie
Keywords: euthanasia, health, informed refusal, patient, rights
Abstract: Euthanasia as an end of life determination in medical treatment has controversy between moral/ ethic, and legal opinion; between disagree and approve to do the euthanasia. In Morality or ethically, euthanasia viewed as a deniable to God’s authority. In legally, euthanasia is a medical form of killing people with end of pain as a justification reason. In the other side, the people who approve this medical act as an implication of human rights, and a part of the rights to die in dignity. Indonesia as a nation based on religion and the legal system refers to the Civil Law system, announced to disagree with euthanasia in active, voluntary or involuntary euthanasia as an offense of life, that had shown in criminal code. The problems are how about the existence of the right of self-determination in the useless-treatment case, or in a case when the patient has no ability and unwilling to get the cure anymore. Could they ask the withholding or withdrawing all of sustained of life equipment or rejected the treatment that had been offered by the doctors? These legal problems will refer to the consent and the competency of the patient to give the decision. Theoretically, there is passive euthanasia where the objectives of the treatment not to end of life, but only reduce the pain of the illness. In the fact, while the patient in un-capable to give the decision, named as in-voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia, and the decisions made by surrogate consent, could the hospital and the physicians were charged by euthanasia? As doctrinal research, it would use the legal interpretation of all legal sources and add by the observation of the facts. The final result would give the new regulation of the right of consent in rejected/refused the treatment by surrogate consent which based on bioethical principles, scientific standards and values, and religious values to enact justice in humanism law. The output of this reason is the reconstruction of health law, especially refer to informed consent, by the decision-makers (the legislative and the government), which can fulfill the rights of the patient but keep protect the health providers (physicians and hospitals).