The awareness about end of life can be raised from a patient’s own insight or result of
medical assessment without the patient’s awareness. In the latter case, which happens commonly in
many health-care settings, it is the health-care providers’ responsibility to address the need for end-oflife care with the patient and his or her family at the earliest opportunity. Because there is a broad
range of literature relevant to the ethics of end-of-life care communication in health-care settings and
it is beyond the scope of defining end-of-life care, we will not discuss any communication strategies
or specific care for this situation in this article.