What is extraordinary life support?

These discussions are selected from the weekly staff conferences in the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. Taken from transcriptions, they are prepared by Drs Homer A. Boushey, Associate Professor of Medicine, and David G. Warnock, Associate Professor of Medicine, under the direction of Dr Lloyd H. Smith, Jr, Professor of Medicine. Requests for reprints should be sent to the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA 94143.