History Main / TakenOffLifeSupport

-> '''Frasier:''' Dad, when are you going to stop blighting the environment with this atrocity? My God, can't you see that it wants to die? Let it go.\\

'''Frasier:''' Dad that will never happen. I have medical power of attorney, it won't cost me a thing.

* ''Advertising/NeverSayNoToPanda'': One of the ads has the panda remove a hospital patient's feeding tube [[DisproportionateRetribution because he didn't want to eat Panda Cheese]], much to the nurse's horror.
* One [[Advertising/TransportAccidentCommission TAC]] public information film from Christmastime 1996 had a married father of two drive drunk and suffer a serious brain injury. After a few days in a coma, the doctors inform his family that he's brain-dead and must be removed from the machines.

* John Arcudi's run on ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'' establishes partway through that Dorothy Spinner became comatose after she went through a meltdown over facing life without the Doom Patrol and ended up killing her fellow teammate Kate Godwin/Coagula. At the end of the run, Robotman can't bear to see Dorothy waste away, so he asks that her life support be unplugged.
* In ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel'', Scarlett is shot by the Baroness and ends up in a coma. Several issues later, her sister Siobhan announces she's filed a court order to have Scarlett taken off life support. After she does so (which actually invokes speech in [[TheVoiceless Snake-Eyes]]), Scarlett makes a miraculous recovery with no apparent loss of mental function... after Storm Shadow has gotten Snake-Eyes to take a dangerous assignment to distract him.

* In the ''Series/Numb3rs'' fanfic ''Fanfic/DonEppes'': After being shot while protecting several children, Don is taken off life support after flatlining twenty minutes prior and is kept alive long enough for his friends and family to say goodbye.
* ''Fanfic/MikesNewGhostlyFamily'': As it was revealed, the true reason why [[spoiler:Evan Afton a.k.a. [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys4 the victim of the Bite of '83]]]] died was not due to passing away from his injuries, but because his father, [[spoiler:William Afton]], had his life support unplugged, presenting his case to the doctors as a MercyKill due to the fact that the damage done to his brain would leave him broken for life, but in reality, he simply wanted to kill him [[TheSociopath due to not wanting to raise a disabled child]], and because [[spoiler:Evan saw his sister Elizabeth get killed by Circus Baby, so William wanted to end his life [[HeKnowsTooMuch to prevent him from revealing that information to anyone]]]].

* ''Film/RoboCop2'': [[PsychoPsychologist Dr. Fax]] visits a gravely injured [[BigBad Caine]] at the hospital, calls his doctor, posing as a nurse, and saying that he suddenly died. She unhooks the equipment keeping him alive, in order to harvest his brain for her [[TitleDrop Robo Cop-2]] project.

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': The episode "Family Ties" has a debate over whether or not to take Buster off of life support while he's comatose in the hospital. The kicker: he's only faking the coma so he doesn't have to testify at his father's hearing.
* ''Series/BostonLegal'': In the final season, Shirley realizes her terminally ill father is in constant pain with no hope for recovery, and asks the doctor to put him on a morphine drip so he can pass away peacefully. The doctor is fully sympathetic and agrees with her that it'd be the most merciful thing to do, but legally, his hands are tied. However, [[CouldSayItBut he indirectly instructs her on how to get a court order]], so then, he'd have no choice but to comply. She succeeds, and the episode ends with her father finally being taken off life support and is allowed to pass on.
* ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'': PlayedForLaughs in "Assassin", which has Helen take a severely injured Brittas off life support simply because she wanted him dead. Luckily for Brittas, Laura is able to convince her to put the plug back in and he makes a full recovery.
* Done plenty of times on ''Series/CoronationStreet'', most notably during the 50th Anniversary Live Episode where [[BrokenBird Charlotte Hoyle]] was taken off of life-support by her parents after being mortally wounded by John Stape.

* Discussed on ''Series/{{Frasier}}'':
-->'''Frasier:''' [Talking about Martin's chair] Dad can't you see it's suffering, it wants to die.\\

'''Fraser:''' Dad that would never happen.\\

'''Frasier:''' I have medical power of attorney. It wouldn't cost me a dime.
* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'': Subverted in the season two episode "Unearthed" as a girl named Lisa Donovan was declared brain dead and taken off life support. However, she comes back to life when the doctors are harvesting organs to donate. She keeps saying the name of a sailor named Andrew Rusk, even though they had never met among other strange experiences. It later turns out she and Rusk are linked psychically and Rusk takes control of her before Lisa was able to finally purge herself of him.
* In the ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode "Starved", a bulimic woman married to a doctor/SerialRapist ends up this way after going into cardiac arrest. Whereas a legal battle ensues between the husband and her mother, both of whom argue over the decision to keep her alive, the courts ultimately ruled in his favor and her treatment is withdrawn. Shortly after her death, the detectives uncover a newspaper article where the couple were interviewed after witnessing a fatal car accident (that the husband tried to render aid for the victims) and it indeed had her mentioning that she would not want to be kept alive via artificial means.
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': In the season four episode "Iceman", a marine named Col. Liam O'Neill was supposedly found dead and brought to autopsy for examination. However, when Ducky starts taking a look at the man, O'Neill suddenly wakes up and is taken to the hospital. He is revealed to be Mike Franks' son, which he didn't know about until a couple years prior. It is later determined that O'Neill is effectively brain dead and with Franks present, they take off the ventilator and O'Neill dies permanently.
* On ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', Kramer's subplot in "The Comeback" explores being taken off life support. After he watches part of a movie in which a character ends up in a coma, he decides he'd rather not let his life end like that and commissions a lawyer to draw up a living will. After the will is drafted, Kramer finishes watching the movie. The character who was in the coma recovers. Now knowing that it's possible to survive being in a coma, he tries to meet with the lawyer again to have the will nullified. Before he can, he's rendered unconscious in an accident and ends up in the hospital. Elaine unplugs a piece of equipment to plug in her VCR just as Kramer wakes up. He sees the plug in her hand and becomes terrified.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In the season three episode "Life Support", Vedek Bareil is seriously injured in a shuttle accident. At first he was thought to be dead after failed attempts to save him, but brain activity was found while an autopsy is about to be preformed and he is saved. However, damage soon reaches Bareil's brain, and brain implants are needed to save him. After the the surgery, Bareil is alive, but a different person. Things only go further downhill from there, and the only way to save him is to add more implants. It's decided that it's best to let him die, even though Kira begs Bashir to save him. In end, he dies with Kira by his side.
* ''Series/{{Titus}}'': When a car accident left Christopher comatose, Ken decided to take him off life support. The shock of being taken off life support actually causes his brain to reactivate.

* One of the Emperor's first demands in ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'' is to take [[OffingTheOffspring his son Roboute Guiliman]] off life support [[OffingTheAnnoyance because Guilliman's gene-sons the Ultramarines annoy him with their excessive chanting]]. The Emperor's caretaker puts it off as much as he can, before the Emperor drops the subject entirely [[note]] Out of universe, the Ultramarines were reviled at the time of the first episode's writing for being a CreatorsPet faction. The writers lighted up on the Ultramarines after a while, and when Games Workshop advanced the plot and revived Guiliman (the healer ironically cutting life support before healing him), they stopped entirely[[/note]].

* ''Webcomic/LoadingArtist'' comic ([[https://loadingartist.com/comic/life-support/ Life Support]]) has a father sitting by his son's bedside as the boy lays there motionless. The father says he can't bear it anymore and reaches behind the bed. Saying "Please forgive me", he pulls the plug. Subverted. He actually unplugged the boy's laptop which he was fixated on to the point of catatonia.

** In "Coma Guy", Peter ends up on life support after a car accident. Lois, after a long struggle with herself, decides to pull the plug. Immediately after, Peter suddenly springs back to life, and the rest of the episode is dedicated to Peter being outraged that Lois was going to let him die.
** A cutaway in one episode had Brian try to fulfill a dying woman's request to do this, but she claims to be shocked that he was willing to follow through, albeit hesitantly, and call for security. Brian quickly leaves, calling her crazy.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** During the first ClipShow episode, which has Mr. Burns want to take Homer off life support for costing his health plan too much money.
** As seen in "Homer The Smithers", part of Mr. Burns' backstory is a strained relationship with his elderly mother and him having a phone conversation with her where he sheepishly apologized for "pulling the plug on her" and her miraculously recovering and living more than fifty years later.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': In the episode "Best Friends Forever", Kenny once again dies after getting into a car crash but it is actually an act of god as he is needed in the fight against Hell. However, he is put in a vegetative state preventing him from doing so. Cartman actively campaigns to get Kenny off life support [[RightForTheWrongReasons so he can get Kenny's PSP]]. The entire controversy ends up being a media circus, and when they finally do read Kenny's will they find out it explicitly begs for the plug to be pulled and [[OhCrap to not show him in this state so he can die with dignity]]. By the end of the episode, Kenny dies and he goes up to heaven and helps defeat Hell and he gets a Keanu Reeves statue.

-->DISCONNECT LIFE SUPPORT
-->"I'm ready son!"

This is a DeathTrope, so beware unmarked spoilers.

!Examples:

-->-- ''Series/{{Frasier}}

* One [=TAC=] public information film from Christmastime 1996 had a married father of two drive drunk and suffer a serious brain injury. After a few days in a coma, the doctors inform his family that he's brain-dead and must be removed from the machines.

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

'''Frasier:''' Dad, when are you going to stop blighting the environment with this atrocity? My God, can't you see that it wants to die? Let it go.\\

* In ''Series/Numb3rs'' story ''Fanfic/DonEppes'': After being shot while protecting several children, Don is taken off life support after flatlining twenty minutes prior and is kept alive long enough for his friends and family to say goodbye.

* In ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'', Scarlett is shot by the Baroness and ends up in a coma. Several issues later, her sister Siobhan announces she's filed a court order to have Scarlett taken off life support. After she does so (which actually invokes speech in [[TheVoiceless Snake-Eyes]]), Scarlett makes a miraculous recovery with no apparent loss of mental function...after Storm Shadow has gotten Snake-Eyes to take a dangerous assignment to distract him.
* ''ComicBook/SwampThing'': One of the most dramatic moments of the post-Creator/AlanMoore run is Issue #84, where Abby finally finds the courage to take [[spoiler:her husband Matt]] off life-support; [[spoiler:Matt's]] soul goes on to become Dream's pet raven in ''ComicBook/TheSandman''.

When a character is unlikely to come out of a coma or recover from fatal injuries, making them an EmptyShell, they are taken off the ventilator or a feeding tube. While it is usually done for reasons of no hope, there are times it is taken off for petty reasons, like to get insurance money or [[InheritanceMurder inheritance]], or the patient is hated by the person that takes the life support off. It can also be used as [[SickbedSlaying sitting-duck assassination]].

* ''Film/NotEasilyBroken'': Throughout the film, Julie's son Bryson is training for a huge swim meet. He won, but in his drive to win, he ultimately swam too hard, collides with a knot in the pool wall and suffers a traumatic brain injury. He is soon taken off of life-support ''[[CriticalResearchFailure against]]'' [[CriticalResearchFailure his mother's wishes.]][[note]]This can't be done without a court proceeding first; until then, she would still have the final say[[/note]]