People aged 19 and older can sign the necessary documents saying they would opt to stop receiving medical treatment after enough explanation from doctors, the ministry said.

The government is building a national database of such applications, which doctors can refer to when deciding whether to continue to put their terminally ill patients on machines to keep them alive or to let them pass away according to their will.

Ahead of the law's implementation, in late October the government began accepting advance applications to forgo life-sustaining treatments.

Since accepting such "advance medical directives" at five locations across the country, more than 4,000 people have signed up to refuse life-sustaining treatments, either all or selected forms of the four treatments.

The ministry said the number is forecast to increase following the law's implementation.

South Korea's Supreme Court recognized a comatose patient's right to die with dignity in 2009 and ordered a hospital to remove her respirator, noting that continuing treatment just to prolong life without hope of recovery violates an individual's basic dignity. (Yonhap)