Withholding and Withdrawing Treatment

First of all, I would like to outline the use of the terms ‘withholding treatment’ and ‘withdrawing treatment’. They belong to the conceptual category of ‘medical decisions at the end of life’, including euthanasia. In contrast to killing, euthanasia only takes place when death is imminent — then and only then. To withhold treatment implies not initiating the treatment. To withdraw life support systems and procedures implies discontinuing a method of treatment, which was initiated to support life, but in the meantime has proven its uselessness and now serves only to prolong life, or rather: to prolong the process of dying.