Site Map

Deciding about treatments that prolong life

Palliative care - treatments that prolong life; Palliative care - life support; End-of-life-treatments that prolong life; Ventilator - treatments that prolong life; Respirator - treatments that prolong life; Life-support - treatments that prolong life; Cancer - treatments that prolong life

Sometimes after injury or a long illness, the main organs of the body no longer work properly without support. Your health care provider may tell you that these organs will not repair themselves.

Medical care to prolong life can keep you alive when these organs stop working well. The treatments may extend your life, but do not cure your illness. These are called life-sustaining treatments.

Life-sustaining Treatments

Treatments to extend life can include the use of machines. This equipment does the work of the body organ, such as:

Making the Decision for Yourself

If you are near the end of your life or you have an illness that will not improve, you can choose what kind of treatment you want to receive.

You should know that the illness or the injury is the main cause of the end of life, not the removal of life support equipment.

To help with your decision:

These can be hard choices for you and those close to you. There is no hard and fast rule about what to choose. People's opinions and choices often change over time.

Making Your Wishes Known

To make sure your wishes are followed:

As your life or health changes, you may also change your health care decisions. You can change or cancel an advanced care directive at any time.

Making the Decision for a Loved one

You may serve as a health care agent or proxy for someone else. In this role you may have to make the decision to start or remove life support machines. It may be a very hard decision to make.

If you need to make a decision about stopping treatment for a loved one:

References

Arnold RM. Palliative care. In: Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Goldman-Cecil Medicine. 26th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2020:chap 3.

Rakel RE, Trinh TH. Care of the dying patient. In: Rakel RE, Rakel DP, eds. Textbook of Family Medicine. 9th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2016:chap 5.

Shah AC, Donovan AI, Gebauer S. Palliative medicine. In: Gropper MA, ed. Miller's Anesthesia. 9th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2020:chap 52.

BACK TO TOP

Review Date: 1/18/2022  

Reviewed By: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

ADAM Quality Logo
Health Content Provider
06/01/2025

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, for Health Content Provider (www.urac.org). URAC's accreditation program is an independent audit to verify that A.D.A.M. follows rigorous standards of quality and accountability. A.D.A.M. is among the first to achieve this important distinction for online health information and services. Learn more about A.D.A.M.'s editorial policy, editorial process and privacy policy. A.D.A.M. is also a founding member of Hi-Ethics. This site complied with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information from 1995 to 2022, after which HON (Health On the Net, a not-for-profit organization that promoted transparent and reliable health information online) was discontinued.

The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. © 1997- 2024 A.D.A.M., a business unit of Ebix, Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.

A.D.A.M. content is best viewed in IE9 or above, Firefox and Google Chrome browser.