Under the new legislation, palliative treatment is only available to terminally ill patients, and for a patient to be defined as terminally ill, two physicians must diagnose that their condition is "incurable and there is medical evidence that it will inevitably progress to death within a short time." Of course, a precondition for palliative care is a consent form signed by the patient.
安寧緩和醫療的適用對象是末期病人，但末期病人的界定必須由兩位醫師診斷為「不可治癒且有醫學上之證據，近期內病程進行至死亡已不可避免者」。