Controversy continued Tuesday surrounding the cause of the death of Baek Nam-gi, an activist farmer who died after being hit by a police water cannon, with civic groups slamming the hospital for shifting responsibility for his death to his family.

Baek’s family and an emergency committee of civic groups renewed its opposition to an autopsy and asked the police to disclose the full content of the autopsy warrant at a news briefing on Monday afternoon.

“Respect for the Baek family’s opinions is at the core of the autopsy warrant issued by the court, but our request to review the autopsy warrant was refused,” said Lee Jeong-il, a lawyer representing Baek’s families. “We need to check the content of the autopsy warrant first to decide what to demand and what to consult with the police about.”

The police secured an autopsy warrant last week, claiming there were no confirmed links between the police water cannon blast and Baek’s death. The court ordered the police to reach an agreement with Baek’s family on where, how and by whom the autopsy is conducted.

Baek’s family and the emergency committee have called the police action “an insult” to the deceased and an attempt to shift the blame for his death elsewhere.

Baek’s family officially requested the hospital revise the cause of death of Baek from illness to external injury, as Seoul National University Hospital maintains that it would not consider changing the cause of Baek’s death.

While a doctors’ organization, left-wing civic groups and Baek’s family in unison claimed the police water cannon blast caused Baek’s death, his main doctor from SNUH wrote in a hospital report that Baek died of an illness.

“At the time, I thought that Baek had died due to lack of active treatment as Baek’s family did not want me to perform hemodialysis,” neurosurgeon Baek Seon-ha said at a news briefing Sunday.

Hemodialysis a procedure is to remove waste from the blood and restore the proper balance of electrolytes in the blood.

“I would have put an external element for the cause of Baek’s death if the patient had died despite the best possible treatment,” he said. “As a doctor, the most important thing for me is a patient’s life and health.”

The family instantly hit back at Dr. Baek and SNUH, one of the nation’s largest medical facilities, alleging that the hospital’s report on the cause of Baek’s death might have been influenced by authorities.

“It doesn’t make sense that the doctor claims the death was because we refused treatment,” Baek Do-raji, the eldest daughter of the deceased farmer, said at a news briefing Sunday. “The doctor expected our father to die if he received treatment to prolong his life, saying that it could prompt internal organ failure.”

The doctor Baek and the hospital denied any possibility of exertion of influence in postmortem procedures. The hospital said that it would offer more details during the upcoming audit session scheduled for Oct. 14.

While acute renal failure was the immediate cause of the farmer’s death, the water cannon blast is believed to be responsible for a cerebral hemorrhage he was diagnosed with earlier after being knocked down by the water cannon.

The 69-year-old activist died on Sept. 25 at Seoul National University Hospital, where he had remained in a coma for 317 days.

Lee Yoon-seong, a forensic doctor and head of the special committee formed by the hospital, acknowledged the doctor broke policy on writing a death report, but said that judging that the cause of death is within a doctor’s own discretion. 

"We acknowledge that he wrote a death report in a way that does not comply with existing guidelines, but we confirmed that he had performed treatment with sincerity,” he said. “We confirmed that there was no external pressure on the doctor to write a death certificate in a certain way.”

“If I were a main doctor, I would have put an ‘external injury,’ not ‘an illness’ for the cause of death on Baek’s report,” Lee added.

According to the official guidelines by Korea Medical Association and Statistics Korea on writing a death certificate, the type of death caused by complications due to external injury should be categorized as a death by external element. It also stipulates that a death by illness is when there are no other external elements other than an illness.

“A death report is written by a doctor, not by a hospital, so no one can force the doctor to write it this way or that way,” Lee said. “When it comes to the need for an autopsy on Baek’s body, it is not a matter we can judge medically.”

The rival parties continued to lock horns over whether an autopsy on Baek’s body is appropriate during a parliamentary audit. The audit resumed Monday after a dayslong standoff over the parliamentary speaker’s alleged lack of political impartiality.

The opposition parties suggested the parliament supports a special investigation into Baek’s death, with their plan to submit a relevant bill Tuesday at the earliest.

The ruling Saenuri Party firmly opposes it, blaming the opposition bloc for using the case for “political intent.” It also made clear the cause of death should be confirmed through an autopsy.

By Ock Hyun-ju  (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)