"As technology advances, and becomes capable of extending biological functions--you wouldn't always call it living--we have to rethink (our policy)." Fineberg said.

If a patient is mentally competent and wants to refuse treatment, there is no reason to contrudict their wishes, the doctors said. If a patient is no longer competent, for example sanile, doctors should honor a "living will," or written testament to their wishes, if it was made while they were competent, the article adds.

In case in which there is no written expression of preference, the report siresses the need for doctors to listen to family members opinions on the best course of action. If there is no consensus, the doctors mind make a judgement call, ball the authors of the report say they hope these situation will become increasingly rare.

"This is an effort to try to get doctors to confront this issue, to try to get them to decide (in advance) what their policy should be," Stone said, adding that doctors "need to know what their patients" wishes are--they shouldn't be afraid to talk about them."

Federman added that the authors do not advocate an especially lax approach in cases where the patient's wishes and best interests are not immediately clear.

"If there's any doubt, we agree on the side of going all-out with treatment," he said. And he adds that the recommendations do not apply to any patients other than the terminally ill. "We'd like to see 400 percent treatment for non-terminal patients," he said