It happens every day in the intensive care units of hospitals throughout the country: Physicians ask the loved ones of someone kept alive by a ventilator and other medical devices whether the patient would want to live hooked up to machines. Or, would the patient prefer to forgo extreme life-prolonging measures for palliative care, in which physicians manage the patient's symptoms – even during aggressive treatments like chemotherapy – and try to help ease spiritual suffering and emotional anguish?

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