If all types of euthanasia are unlawful under the Thai criminal law, it is not necessarily so under Thai civil law.
When euthanasia, whether active or passive, is performed without the patient’s consent, the doctor will be charged with a tort, and is required to pay the reparation. In case where euthanasia is accomplished with the patient’s own consent, the principle volunti non fit injuria is applied as a general principle of law even though the very same act would be criminally condemned.
The problem arises in case where the consent to cease the care and treatment is given by the patient’s relatives when the patient is medically incurable and unconscious or in the persistent vegetative state. Under the Thai law, the Medical Council’s Regulations on Medical Ethics provides under Chapter 3 Clause 1 that “medical professionals will maintain the highest standard of the professional medical practice and make an effort in order that the patients be relieved from the suffering caused by the disease and from any disability….” Accordingly, the doctor must, with the patient’s own informed consent, give necessary care on the basis of the patient’s