The right to die in dignity and comfort is one of the gravest concerns due to the ever-increasing number of patients with incapacitating illnesses who experience a prolonged painful death, and to the modern trend to place an emphasis on the improvement of quality of life whenever possible. According to the guidelines issued by the Korean Medical Association in 2002, in cases of incurable illnesses, such as terminal stage cancer, meaningless life-maintaining management may be terminated to allow patients to die with dignity. However, the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare maintains the stance that such guidelines overtly support the institutionalization of "passive euthanasia", and that those who follow such guidelines should be charged with murder, in accordance with the requirements of the existing Korean law. Given that, any one of us may be confronted with such a miserable death, we all have a compelling interest in the revision of the existing legislation, perhaps by using the "U.S. Living Will Registry" as a model.
Euthanasia ; Homicide ; Humans ; Institutionalization ; Jurisprudence ; Living Wills ; Quality of Life ; Right to Die*

PURPOSE: We undertook this study to find out the recognitions of terminal cancer patients and doctors about advance directives (ADs), of how they would do in non-response medical conditions and whether ADs could be one of medical options for their dying with dignity. METHODS: One hundred thirty four cancer patients in the Hospice Unit, St. Vincent's Hospital, and 97 medical doctors in the Department of Internal Medicine, Catholic Medical Center, were asked about ADs, including Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR), medical power of attorney, living will and medical options. RESULTS: One hundred thirty patients (97%) and 38 doctors (39.2%) were unfamiliar with ADs, however, 128 patients (95.5%), 95 doctors (97.9%) agreed with it. Seventy nine patients (59.0%) and 96 doctors (99.0%) wanted DNR rather then intensive treatments if they were in non-response medical conditions. Eighty four patients (62.7%) and 75 doctors (77.3%) were agreeable to medical power of attorney. One hundred Thirty four patients (100.0%) and 94 doctors (96.9%) did not want medical options to be in terminal conditions, and hoped to die in peace. CONCLUSION: Most of patients did not know about ADs and how to make it. However, they showed positive attitudes about it. If we advertise it properly, it is highly likely that a large number of cancer patients would make their living wills easily by ADs. Nevertheless, many legal and ethical problems have to be solved. Doctors should engage their patients in an ongoing communication about the end-of-life. Therefore, let the patients have opportunities to plan their own deaths.
Advance Directives ; Hospice Care ; Hospices ; Humans ; Internal Medicine ; Linear Energy Transfer ; Living Wills

How personality forms and whether personality genes exist are long-studied questions. Various concepts and theories have been presented for centuries. Personality is a complex trait and is developed through the interaction of genes and the environment. Twin and family studies have found that there are critical genetic and environmental components in the inheritance of personality traits, and modern advances in genetics are making it possible to identify specific variants for personality traits. Although genes that were found in studies on personality have not provided replicable association between genetic and personality variability, more and more genetic variants associated with personality traits are being discovered. Here, we present the current state of the art on genetic research in the personality field and finally list several of the recently published research highlights. First, we briefly describe the commonly used self-reported measures that define personality traits. Then, we summarize the characteristics of the candidate genes for personality traits and investigate gene variants that have been suggested to be associated with personality traits.
Genetic Research ; Humans ; Wills

Congenital generalized fibrosis of extraocular muscles is a rare congenital and usually familial anomaly involving fibrosis of most or all of the extraocular muscles and was described by Heuck and by Brown. All muscles, including the levator muscle, tend to be involved in this bilateral syndrome, although the muscles of one eye may be more involved than those of the other. Some muscles may be minimally fibrotic while others are maximally involved. The inferior rectus muscles are usually the most prone to maximal involvement, causing the eyes to be drawn downward and offering resistance to elevation. Because of this and the marked ptosis, a chin-up position is usually assumed to fixate objects straight ahead. Horizontal movements of the eye may be limited to a few degree in one or both directions or there may be no horizontal movements and perverted convergence movements occur on attempted upgaze. This condition may occur in an autosomal dominant inheritance and in a sporadic form. The authors experienced a case of congenital generalized fibrosis of extraocular muscles in a family occurred in an autosomal dominant inheritance.
Fibrosis* ; Humans ; Muscles* ; Wills

Pigmented Paravenous Retinochoroidal Atrophy(PPRCA) is a type of pigmentary retinopathy that affects mostly both eyes symmetrically without inheritance. The PPRCA occurs in both progressive and non-progressive forms, but most cases are non-progressive forms. The fundus appearance of PPRCA is characteristic, with peripapillary pigmentary change as well as areas of retinochoroidal atrophy adjacent to the perivenular pigmentary change. The authors have studied a case of PPRCA which was diagnosed through the characteristic fundus appearance and other ophthalmological examinations.
Atrophy ; Retinitis Pigmentosa ; Wills

The congenital cataract is the relatively common cause of the blindness in childhood, and its etiology is multiple but most of etiology is unknown. The inheritance is the largest single category of cause of congenital cataract. The modes of the inheritance are autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive and X-linked. The autosomal dominant inheritance is the most common type. We experienced hereditary congenital cataract, which transmitted with autosomal dominant inheritance. So we reported this patients with review of literatures.
Blindness ; Cataract* ; Humans ; Wills

The study was conducted on 240 peptic ulcers among 1320 hospitalized patients at the Gastro-Intestinal Department from January 2000 to December 2000, suing retrospective and pedigree method. The analysis on 4 generations of this group, including 171 persons in 29 branches, 42 families showed that the disease was vertically inherited through generations like autosomal dominant inheritance. The incidence was 46.77% (26/62 patients). Male to female ratio was 2:1 (24 males:12 females). 5.55% of patients (2/36) have disease on at 15 years old or less, 52.78% (19/36) of patients onset between 16 to 40 years. 11.11% onset at 40 years or more. 30.56% of patients (11/36) were not identified the onset of disease.
Peptic Ulcer ; Wills

No abstract available.
Embryonic Structures* ; Humans ; Wills*

Osteochondroma, also known as osteocartilaginous exostosis, or just exostosis, is the most common benign bone tumor. Most of osteochondromas are solitary lesions and affect long bones; however, about 12% of osteochondromas are multiple lesions with the autosomal dominant inheritance. Only 1~4% of solitary osteochondromas originate in the spine. Symptoms vary depending on its location. We experienced a case of osteochondroma of the atlas presenting as an oropharyngeal mass. We report the case with a review of literatures.
Exostoses ; Osteochondroma* ; Spine ; Wills

Advance care planning (ACP) is a process of discussion of healthcare decisions with regard to a patient's future health and personal care, should they become unable to make or communicate their own decisions in the future. ACP can be as simple as a chat about the patient's end-of-life wishes with their trusted loved ones, and may involve their doctors, organisations and trained facilitators. The process can be documented with available online resources, such as structured tools. Family physicians, with whom patients share unique therapeutic relationships, are in the best position to introduce and start the ACP conversation with their patients.
Advance Care Planning ; Cultural Characteristics ; Decision Making ; Humans ; Living Wills ; Physicians, Family ; Professional-Patient Relations ; Singapore ; Terminal Care ; methods