The development of new life-sustaining treatments may result
in lives with questionable life quality or may sometimes
extend the duration of death. Under these circumstances, patients,
their relatives and/or the healthcare professionals are
faced with decisions about life-sustaining treatments. There
are two forms of decisions regarding life-sustaining treatment
limitation, which are ethically coequal: withholding and withdrawing
treatments. The decision can be made by the patient
in the presence of decision-making capacity or by a suitable
proxy, or the patient may have made a living will prior to the
loss of their decision-making capacity. However, it is not always
possible to know the patient's wishes, and in such circumstances,
it is the healthcare professional(s)' responsibility
to decide. The aim of this paper is to discuss the ethical reasoning
for limiting life-sustaining treatment in the context of
refusal, living will, principle of proportionality, quality of life,
treatment futility, and triage.
Keywords: Ethics, medical; withholding treatment; withdrawing treatment; medical futility; quality of life
