Problems related to intensive care ethics have become an important issue during the last few years, in particular end-of-life decisions in the ICU, withholding and withdrawing therapy, and communication with family members. The present article is based on a translation of two documents mapping the development of the discussion and solving these issues in France. It concerns the official attitude of a professional society to the withdrawing of life sustaining therapy in 2002 and the legislative standard defining the pa - tients’ rights at the end of life in 2005. In France, patients in an advanced or terminal stage of their disease are entitled to refuse any treatment including those keeping them alive. If the patients are incompetent to express their will, it is the attending physician’s role to omit all treatment considered to be futile, inadequate and believed to lead only to the “artificial sustainment of life“.

        Key words: withholding therapy – withdrawing therapy – ICU – ethics – communication