From Health Checkups to Funerals

A concept covering the entire process of end-of-life medical and welfare services, from health checkups through dying and funerals

From Health Checkups to Funerals

Overview

'From Health Checkups to Funerals' is an expression encompassing a series of medical, welfare, and administrative services related to end-of-life, from the health checkup stage, in which an individual prevents and detects disease, through diagnosis and treatment of serious illness, hospice and palliative care, dying, and post-mortem funeral procedures. It does not simply list two events, checkups and funerals, but arises from a critical awareness that seeks to understand as a single perspective the continuous care pathway running from prevention–diagnosis–treatment–care–dying–post-mortem handling. Recently, with aging and the spread of well-dying discourse, demands to design this entire process in an integrated way are growing.

Main Content

1. Health Checkups: The Starting Point of Prevention and Early Detection

National health screening begins with infant and toddler checkups after birth and continues across the life cycle. Adults receive a general health checkup every two years, and those aged 40 and older become eligible for national cancer screenings such as upper endoscopy, breast cancer, and cervical cancer screening. The core of screening is to detect risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia) and early cancers at the asymptomatic stage, thereby lowering treatment costs and mortality. Screening results are effective only when they lead not merely to notification but to lifestyle correction, re-examination, and linkage to specialist care.

2. Diagnosis and Treatment: Responding to Serious Illness

If abnormal findings appear in screening, the patient enters the stage of detailed examination and confirmed diagnosis, and then active treatment such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. During this period, the burden of medical costs, nursing, and family care arises simultaneously, and social safety nets such as special case support, catastrophic medical expense support, and private indemnity insurance come into play. When a situation arises in which treatment can hardly aim for a complete cure, a decision is needed to shift from treatment-centered care to care-centered care.

3. Hospice and Palliative Care: Quality-of-Life-Centered Care

This is a system that provides pain and symptom relief and psychological, social, and spiritual care to terminally ill patients. Under the 'Act on Hospice and Palliative Care and Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment for Patients in the Process of Dying' (abbreviated as the Life-Sustaining Treatment Decision Act), hospice use and withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment are legally institutionalized. Through an advance statement of intent regarding life-sustaining treatment and a life-sustaining treatment plan, individuals can state their wishes in advance, and this is a key mechanism ensuring the patient's right to self-determination during the dying process.

4. Dying and Post-Mortem Administration

When death is imminent, administrative procedures follow, including issuance of a death certificate, death report (within 14 days), and settlement of inheritance and debts. Funerals have rapidly shifted from burial to cremation, and the proportion choosing natural burial after cremation (tree burial, sea burial, etc.) is increasing. The scope of 'post-mortem services' is expanding to include funeral directors, pre-need funeral services, estate clearing, and digital legacy management (canceling accounts and subscriptions).

5. The Need for an Integrated Perspective

This entire process interlinks medical care, welfare, law, finance, and administration. If health literacy at the screening stage, medical expense planning at the treatment stage, life-sustaining treatment decisions at the terminal stage, and post-mortem inheritance and funeral preparations are each handled separately, the burden on the individual and family increases. Therefore, an approach that views 'from health checkups to funerals' as a single life design is required.

Recent Trends

Several changes have stood out in 2024–2025. First, well-dying/well-die education has spread through local government and public institution programs, and the rate of writing advance statements of intent regarding life-sustaining treatment is steadily increasing. Second, as home medical care, visiting nursing, and community care are strengthened, discussions are underway to build a continuous care system linking nursing hospitals, homes, and hospice institutions. Third, with the development of digital healthcare, wearable and AI-based health monitoring is changing checkups into a system of continuous management. Fourth, the expansion of natural burials and modernization of funeral facilities, along with new post-mortem service markets such as estate clearing and digital legacy management, are growing. Fifth, with entry into a super-aged society, end-of-life issues such as life-sustaining treatment decisions, inheritance, and caregiving have emerged as major agendas in politics, law, and welfare.