The revelation in late March that a Toyama Prefecture surgeon shut off the life support of six patients and let them die has raised once again the issue of how to treat the terminally ill.

Atsuko Fujita wonders whether she would keep her 83-year-old father, who has colon cancer, on life support.

"If I see my father in agony, I would want the doctor to help him" and put him on life support, said Fujita, founder of Pure, a nonprofit organization that supports home care for the terminally ill, based in Chiba Prefecture.