AFP, JEJU, South Korea
In excruciating pain from a debilitating neurological condition, South Korean Lee Myung-shik had reluctantly given up on assisted death in Switzerland when he learned his daughter risked prison time if she helped him.Now, the 65-year-old is looking to South Korea’s Constitutional Court for help in what is the first known legal challenge to the country’s assisted dying ban, his lawyer Kim Jae-ryon said.Despite strong opioid pain medication, wheelchair-bound Lee has endured constant discomfort since his 2020 diagnosis with acute myelitis, a rare condition that has no known cure.His urine is drained through a catheter, and a carer manually removes his stool.The pain feels like “my thighs are being crushed by a heavy press, as though my lower body were pinned beneath a dump truck,” Lee said.
“I am not really living. I am merely surviving,” said Lee, who also contends with pressure sores and skin necrosis.He has long come to see death as the only escape.Lee said he planned to travel to Switzerland in 2022 with the help of Dignitas, a Swiss nonprofit that supports people seeking an assisted death. As he cannot travel alone, his daughter was to accompany him.However, “joy turned to sorrow” when he realized she could face up to 10 years in prison back home under a ban on assisted suicide in South Korea’s Criminal Act, he said.“While preparing the paperwork, I halted the process because I could not bring myself to list a companion,” he said.In 2023, Lee filed a petition with the Constitutional Court, saying that when medicine offers no cure and life entails only physical and mental suffering, a person’s “right to decide on their own death” should be protected by the state.“Incurable, persistent and excruciating pain is the most brutal form of torture on Earth,” he said.Dignitas said it had helped 11 South Koreans with assisted deaths by December last year.None of those who accompanied them have been prosecuted, Kim said.“It appears people traveled there secretly and no one reported them to the police,” Lee said, but added that it is a risk he was not willing to take, nor should anyone have to.“If the constitutional complaint succeeds, the legal interpretation of aiding and abetting suicide could shift, allowing people in similar circumstances to avoid criminal punishment,” he said.Kim said a public hearing might be held later this year, nearly three years after Lee’s petition was filed.Rulings usually take several months.Kim said she was “cautiously optimistic” of a positive outcome, citing a global trend toward allowing assisted dying and growing demand in South Korea.A total of 144 South Koreans had applied for Dignitas’ services by the end of last year — the 14th-highest national figure, the non-profit said.A December 2024 survey by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs found that 82 percent of South Korean respondents supported assisted dying.However, under the law, doctors or others who help another person die risk between one and 10 years in jail.Lee said the provision is unconstitutional.A lawmaker introduced a bill to legalize medically assisted dying in 2024, but the initiative stalled in the face of fierce resistance from religious groups and the Korean Medical Association.Countries including Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada, Spain, Uruguay and some US states allow assisted dying.Lee said he had an assurance from Dignitas “that they would accept me at any time.”
