On December 10, 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear a significant case about who decides when life-sustaining treatment may be withdrawn. The patient's physicians maintain that they can withdraw life-sustaining treatment without the consent of the substitute decision maker if it is no longer medically indicated and that to hold otherwise would encourage patients to insist on treatments that are medically futile. The patient's wife, who is his substitute decision-maker, takes the position that the medical measures are of benefit to her husband because they are keeping him alive and that he is entitled to remain alive until she thinks that that there is no hope for his recovery.