The Problems and the Improvement Plan of the Hospice/Palliative Care and Dying Patient's Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment Act / 한국호스피스완화의료학회지

Nearly 20 years after the Boramea Hospital case, the act on decisions on life-sustaining treatment for patients in hospice and palliative care or at the end of life has taken effect on February 4, 2018 as recommended by the National Bioethics Committee. However, during the legislation process, some parts of the bill that stakeholders and concerned parties did not see eye to eye were either revised or removed. Moreover, the hospice and palliative care part was added in the last minute before the enactment. As a result, the law includes parts that are not in line with the recommendations from the National Bioethics Committee, thereby causing various problems. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor how the decisions on life-sustaining treatments are made in the field and gather various opinions of concerned parties to identify and address problems in the early stage of the implementation of the law. Based on the data, the legislation must be amended to fulfill its purpose that is “to protect the dignity and value of human beings by assuring the best interests of the patients and by respecting their self-determination”.

Determination of amino acid and free sugar contents in Korean traditional fermented soybean products of Doenjang and evaluation of their sensory attributes

This study quantitatively determined contents of amino acids and free sugars in soybean fermented samples [Doenjang] using amino acid autoanalyzer and HPLC, respectively. As a result, hreonine, serine, glycine, alanine and lysine categorized as total sweet amino acids and free sugars [sucrose, maltose, glucose, galactose and fructose] were found in the range of 32.7 to 117.1 and 5.85 to 23.66mg/100 g, respectively. However, average of total sugar content was noted to be 71.63mg%. Three samples possessing the best sensory characteristics were selected for further study. The mean values of four sensory attributes such as sweet, sour, savory and bitter tastes of Doenjang samples were found to be 709.53, 210.25, 241.90 and 276.05. These findings confirm nutritive properties of fermented food products of Doenjang with improved quality and utilization