"Husband Removes Wife's Respirator Due to Financial Hardship, Sentenced to 5 Years in Participatory Trial"

Defendant: "Wife Asked Not to Receive Life-Sustaining Treatment During Her Lifetime Due to Hospital Bills"
Prosecution: "Life-Sustaining Treatment Lasted Only One Week, Legal to Stop"
9 Jurors Unanimously 'Guilty', Sentencing Between 3 to 5 Years Selected

Ventilator. (The photo is unrelated to the article content) [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kim Bong-ju] A husband who removed his wife’s ventilator in the intensive care unit, causing her death, was sentenced to five years in prison by a citizen jury trial.

The Chuncheon District Court Criminal Division 2 (Chief Judge Jin Won-du) announced on the 10th that it sentenced Lee Mo (59), who was charged with murder, to five years in prison and ordered his immediate detention in court.

Lee was tried on charges of completely pulling out the ventilator intubated in his wife’s (56) airway by hand in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Cheonan, Chungnam Province, on June 4 last year, causing her death from hypoxia. The trial was held as a citizen jury trial at 11 a.m. that day.

Lee’s side testified that he committed the crime due to the fact that his wife had no chance of recovery, that she had previously expressed her wish not to receive life-sustaining treatment, and the hospital bills amounting to 200,000 to 300,000 won per day.

Lee said that while working as a caregiver with his wife, he witnessed critically ill patients with almost no chance of recovery continuing to live painfully under life-sustaining treatment, and saw the psychological and economic suffering of the entire family.

He added that his wife often told the family during her lifetime, “We don’t want to be a burden to other family members, so even if we get sick later, let’s not receive life-sustaining treatment.”

He also cited the financial burden of hospital bills costing 200,000 to 300,000 won per day as a cause of the crime, noting that their son living in Korea and daughter residing in China were not financially well-off due to loans taken out for purchasing a house.

Lee also claimed that the hospital’s negligence contributed to his wife’s death. On the morning of the incident around 9:30 a.m., after removing the ventilator in front of a nurse and leaving the intensive care unit despite medical staff’s objections, the medical team failed to properly perform emergency measures such as re-intubating the ventilator, resulting in his wife’s death 30 minutes later.

The Chuncheon District Court Criminal Division 2 (Chief Judge Jin Won-du) announced on the 10th that it sentenced Lee Mo (59), who was indicted on murder charges, to 5 years in prison and ordered his immediate detention.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Lee’s defense attorney stated, “Although the victim did not receive emergency treatment due to a conflict of opinion between the attending physician who ordered re-intubation and other medical staff who said the guardian refused re-intubation, Lee did not refuse re-intubation,” and appealed, “Please consider the medical staff’s negligence as a mitigating factor rather than blaming Lee, and sentence him to a suspended prison term.”

On the other hand, the prosecution pointed out that the life-sustaining treatment period was only one week and that legal discontinuation of life-sustaining treatment was possible, demanding a sentence of seven years in prison. The prosecution said it was unreasonable to hastily judge that recovery was impossible without knowing the diagnosis and without undergoing additional tests at another hospital.

They also pointed out that there was an opinion that “it is difficult to definitively conclude brain damage,” and that Lee’s family inquired about the possibility of discontinuing life-sustaining treatment at the hospital but did not wait for legal procedures. They referred to a precedent where a husband who removed a ventilator after relying on it for two years due to Lou Gehrig’s disease was sentenced to three years in prison, arguing that a harsher sentence should be imposed.

In his final statement, Lee said, “I am sorry to my wife. It’s because our situation is difficult…” All nine jurors participating in the citizen jury trial unanimously found him “guilty.” For sentencing, five jurors chose five years in prison, three chose four years, and one chose three years with a five-year suspended sentence.

The court stated, “Human life is the most dignified and invaluable. In accordance with the purpose of introducing citizen jury trials, we respect the jurors’ opinions and sentence him to five years in prison, and order his immediate detention in court due to flight risk.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.