Episode 55

[Act on Hospice and Palliative Care and Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment for Patients in the Dying Process]

On the laptop screen that Lee Ha-roo was holding up, there was a law with a name that clearly seemed to be extremely relevant to the topic we were currently dealing with.

"Where, where?"

Han Seol also came close to me and stuck her face out.

Article 1 (Purpose): The purpose of this Act is to guarantee the best interests of patients and protect human dignity and value by respecting their self-determination by stipulating the necessary matters regarding hospice and palliative care, and life-sustaining treatment and decisions on the suspension of life-sustaining treatment for patients in the dying process.

Article 2 (Definitions): The meanings of the terms used in this Act are as follows. <Amended, Mar. 27, 2018>

1. "Dying process" refers to a state where there is no possibility of recovery, where the symptoms do not improve despite treatment, and where the symptoms are rapidly worsening and death is imminent.

2. "Patient in the dying process" refers to a person who has received a medical judgment from their attending physician and one specialist in the relevant field that they are in the dying process, in accordance with Article 16.

"Ah, this?"

After a series of events had occurred, the heated topic of legalizing euthanasia had risen to the surface of our society.

It was fortunate that precedents that defined the standards for legal euthanasia had been made, but that didn't mean that all of the problems had been solved.

• So, how are we supposed to prove the intent to refuse life-sustaining treatment?

It wasn't like unfortunate situations such as being a vegetable or being unconscious would come with a warning so that you could prepare for it.

In most cases, patients reached that level of critical condition because of unexpected accidents.

Medical accidents that occurred while treating other serious illnesses, or traffic accidents where they were hit by a truck that was running a red light.

Therefore, in reality, it was often impossible to collect clues that would allow you to infer a 'refusal of life-sustaining treatment' beforehand.

The Grandma Kim case, where they had been able to secure evidence that proved the patient's beliefs, was actually... it might be a bit of a misnomer to say it like this, but it was a relatively 'lucky' case.

On the other hand, the hospital's position was also a headache.

The patient's families were demanding that they stop life-sustaining treatment immediately, but it wasn't easy to judge whether the evidence that those people were presenting was sufficient enough to be acknowledged by the Supreme Court.

If they trusted the families and rashly stopped life-sustaining treatment, and then a prosecutor came later and said, "This is not legal euthanasia," and indicted them for murder, then they would have to close the hospital on that day.

Therefore, there was a growing voice that they should create laws and systems to manage passive euthanasia, instead of just relying on precedents.

"The result of that was this Hospice something, or the abbreviated Life-Sustaining Treatment Decision Act."

"Ah."

Lee Ha-roo nodded.

"But then, can't we just deal with it using this?"

I looked at the part that she was pointing at.

Article 17 (Confirmation of Patient's Intent) (1) The intent of a patient who desires a decision on the suspension of life-sustaining treatment shall be confirmed by any of the following methods:

1. In cases where the patient, who is 19 years of age or older, is in a medical condition where they cannot express their intent and does not fall under subparagraphs 1 or 2... (omitted)... If there are consistent statements from two or more family members of the patient (if there is only one family member, then the statement from that one family member), then it shall be seen as the intent of the patient after confirmation by the attending physician and one specialist in the relevant field.

Even if they didn't go to court, the law stated that if there were consistent statements from the family members, then they would acknowledge that the patient had the intent to stop life-sustaining treatment.

With this, the patient's families could let their loved ones who were suffering be at peace without having to go through a difficult legal battle.

From the hospital's perspective, they had also gotten rid of a problem that they had to worry about, so it was a win-win situation.

"But..."

I shook my head.

"This law can't be applied to this case."

"Why not?"

"Look at the date."

I pointed at one corner of the screen.

[Enforcement Date Aug. 4, 2017] [Act No. 14013, Enacted Feb. 3, 2016]

"The Life-Sustaining Treatment Decision Act was created in 2016. The enforcement date was 2017."

"So what?"

"Look at the case records again. When did this case occur?"

Han Seol picked up the materials instead.

"The date that A was discharged and died was... let's see... January 13, 2014."

It was a case that had occurred before the Life-Sustaining Treatment Decision Act had even been created. If you looked at the records carefully, the indictment had also been filed around that time.

Therefore, we were in a trial that had occurred in 2014.

That was why we couldn't judge it based on the current laws.

"No way, you even look at the dates?"

"Of course, I have to. The other side could point it out."

"......Are you saying that you didn't mention the Life-Sustaining Treatment Decision Act from the beginning because of this?"

"Well, of course."

If they could have applied the Life-Sustaining Treatment Decision Act, then there would have been no need to look at the precedents or argue over the evidence.

From the moment I had seen the date of 2014 in the problem, I had neatly erased this law from my mind.

"Is there anything that you don't know?"

Han Seol also clicked her tongue.

"Alright, alright, this is not the time to be admiring me. We're running out of time. Let's keep going."

Now that we had concluded that the euthanasia in this case was illegal, it meant that it was a crime in some form or another.

The problem was the charges and the form of their involvement.

"For now, it would be murder, right?"

Han Seol, who had been looking at her laptop, said.

"The case where a father removed his son's ventilator to reduce his pain. That had concluded with a murder charge."

"Well, probably."

I nodded.

"But that's not the end of it."

"Then?"

"This case, the setup for the defendant is a bit strange."

"The defendant... it was the doctor, Lee Eul-nam, right?"

"Yeah."

From the beginning, it was strange. When creating a problem in the form of a record like this, it was an unspoken rule to start with 'Kim Gap-dong' as the defendant.

Lee Eul-nam was a name that only appeared when there were two defendants.

But in this case, Kim Gap-dong, A's son who had requested that A be discharged, was not the defendant.

On the other hand, Lee Eul-nam, the doctor who had written a statement after receiving the request and had discharged A, was set as the defendant.

If you combined all of these circumstances, then there was only one conclusion.

"This problem originally had two defendants."

"Two?"

"Yeah. Both Kim Gap-dong and Lee Eul-nam."

Then it would make sense.

The only people who were directly involved in the euthanasia that was a crime were these two.

It was probably designed as a problem where they would each discuss the responsibility of both Kim Gap-dong and Lee Eul-nam, and then after it was all done, they had removed Kim Gap-dong from the list of defendants.

That was the most natural way to think about it.

"Uhm. Why would they do that...?"

"If you're asking about the motivation, then it would be the evaluation criteria."

The criteria for deciding the winner and loser in this match were already complicated.

Unlike before, where it was simple, like the prosecution winning if the defendant was guilty, and the defense winning if the defendant was not guilty, it wasn't like that this time.

They said that they would be scoring based on how coherent the argument for the charges and the logic that proved them were, and how advantageous or disadvantageous the conclusion was for the defendant.

If there were two defendants on top of that, then it would be too much of a headache.

One verdict could be advantageous for defendant 1 while being disadvantageous for defendant 2, and vice versa.

It would also be difficult to compare the degree of advantage and disadvantage.

Therefore, they had reduced the number of defendants to one to make the scoring criteria at least a little simpler.

"It's a valid explanation, but."

Lee Ha-roo tilted her head.

"So what does that mean?"

"It means that we have to think about why they left Lee Eul-nam out of the two."

Two defendants. Kim Gap-dong and Lee Eul-nam.

If you thought about the reason why the creator of the problem had chosen Lee Eul-nam as the only defendant while editing the problem, then the 'answer' to this problem would be revealed.

"Guys."

After making my decision, I declared.

"Let's go with these charges."

* * *

It was time to stand in court again.

Our team was at the prosecutor's seat, and Gu Min-hwan's team was sitting at the seats prepared for the defendant and their lawyer.

"Wow, it's finally starting."

"I've already learned so much just by watching the preparation process, but what are they going to show us this time?"

I had thought that the audience might have decreased a bit during the analysis time, but it seemed that the gallery was even more crowded than before.

"Go, Min-hwan!"

And a large portion of them were second-year students who were cheering for Gu Min-hwan.

In reality, it wasn't like they were particularly close to Gu Min-hwan, or that they had been friendly with him from the start.

From the beginning, Gu Min-hwan himself hadn't shown any interest in ordinary people.

"..."

Even now, he wasn't even glancing at the people who were shouting his name, and was just staring intently at the documents and materials that he had prepared.

Then what was the identity of this support?

"We can't lose! Let's show them the class of the second-years!"

The answer was here.

The finals and the selection of representatives for the civil field had already ended.

It was Shin Seo-joon's team that had won, as expected.

If our team won in the criminal field as well, then it would be the first time in history that a team composed only of first-year students would be the representatives for Korea University Law School, with the second-year students having lost all of their matches.

• We can't allow that!

That was the agreement that had been made behind the scenes.

It was fine if they lost to Gu Min-hwan.

From the beginning, his experience was on a different level from ordinary law school students.

But if they lost to first-year students, who had barely been in school for half a year, and had all of the crowns taken from them, then they wouldn't be able to save face.

"......Uhm."

At that time, Gu Min-hwan raised his head.

And then, he directly turned his dark, deep eyes that seemed like they could suck you in towards me, not the audience.

"Do you have anything to say?"

I asked, meeting his gaze.

"......You said that you beat him."

"That's right."

Me, first place. Shin Seo-joon, joint second place.

Although it was only once, I had won, after all.

You couldn't call it a permanent victory, and I would probably have to study until my nose bled to maintain this ranking for the final exams.

"I'll be looking forward to it."

With that short sentence, Gu Min-hwan closed his eyes again.

'He only says what he wants to say.'

In reality, there was something that I wanted to ask Gu Min-hwan.

Why did Shin Seo-joon hate you? What happened in the past?

If my memory was correct, it was the first time that Shin Seo-joon had moved for something other than his own 'purpose'.

My involvement had clearly caused a change from the original story.

The moot court competition itself was an episode that was unrelated to the main story, but if Shin Seo-joon's actions were being twisted, then it would be difficult to predict and prepare for what was going to happen in the future.

If possible, I also needed to find out about the things that had happened between him and Gu Min-hwan.

'But that's a story for after I win this match.'

First, I had to beat Gu Min-hwan.

After taking a deep breath and calming my mind, I exchanged glances with my two teammates.

"Then, let's begin. Prosecution, please make your opening statement."

Following that instruction, I stood up from my seat.

"Honorable Judge."

From now on, the real battle would begin.