An increasing number of families of people declared brain dead are playing a greater role in deciding the fate of their loved ones, and some are opting to stop unnecessary life-prolonging treatment.
At the Chiba Prefectural Emergency Medical Treatment Center, doctors have been asking the families of brain-dead patients to make choices on treatment for more than 20 years.
The center bases the practice on the philosophy that useless life-prolonging measures should not be administered after a person has been declared brain dead.