Does the patient have to be terminally ill to refuse treatment?
Though in most cases of withholding or withdrawing treatment the patient has a serious illness with limited life expectancy, the patient does not have to be “terminally ill” in order for treatment withdrawal or withholding to be justifiable. Most states, including Washington State, have laws that guarantee the right to refuse treatment to terminally ill patients, usually defined as those having less than 6 months to live. These laws do not forbid other patients from exercising the same right. Many court cases have affirmed the right of competent patient to refuse medical treatments. What if the patient is not competent? In some cases, the patient is clearly unable to voice a wish to have treatment withheld or withdrawn. As with DNR orders, there are two general approaches to this dilemma: Advance Directives and surrogate decision makers. As has been described above, ADs are documents that indicate with some specificity the kinds of decisions the patient would like made should he/she be
