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¹Kocaeli Üniversitesi, Sağlık Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Tıp Tarihi ve Etik Anabilim Dalı, Kocaeli
²Kocaeli Üniversitesi, Tıp Fakültesi, Tıp Tarihi ve Etik Anabilim Dalı, Kocaeli 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