A membrane electrode assembly for a fuel cell, in which electrical resistance is minimized by including a current collector between a catalyst layer and a fuel diffusion layer inside electrodes to shorten the electron transfer distance, and in which corrosion of the current collector due to direct contact between the current collector and the catalyst in the catalyst layer is prevented by including an electrically conductive current collector-protecting layer between the current collector and the catalyst layer, and a fuel cell including the membrane electrode assembly which can stably exhibit constant performance for a prolonged period of time, and which has excellent efficiency due to low electrical resistance.