A group promoting the right of terminally ill patients to a "dignified death" is seeking legislation that would allow relatives to choose euthanasia if the patient's will is not clear, group members said Saturday.
By advocating that a family should be able to make decisions based on the assumed will of a patient, the Japan Society for Dying with Dignity is endorsing for the first time the idea that euthanasia can be decided by someone other than the patient.
The euthanasia issue has returned to the spotlight due to recent revelations that a surgeon in Imizu, Toyama Prefecture, took a number of terminal patients off life support.