They even may prove able to manage much of their own care in their final days. Some people decide to avoid aggressive medical treatment, particularly involving machines capable of artificially maintaining life, while continuing to accept everyday care. Some terminally ill people and their families choose hospice care for their final weeks or days. The Right to Refuse Treatment Saving lives is the goal of medical care. The wishes must be made known as early in the illness or hospitalization as possible, or even beforehand, when the individual's mental competence to make such decisions is unquestionable.
Every major loss elicits grief and necessitates adjustments through a process of mourning.
The sudden disappearance of good health or the need to make dramatic changes in customary routines will cause varying degrees of grief for the person who is ill. For close relatives and friends left behind after a death, mourning is a complex and often long-term matter, frequently leading to bouts of intense sadness and feelings of loneliness, guilt, and abandonment. These emotions may persist in some form even years later. Those who are facing imminent death also grieve the loss of their own life. Research has identified five emotional stages of grieving commonly experienced by the terminally ill.