An Australian government ethics committee will recommend that people let their “unresponsive” loved ones die if medical treatment is costly and futile, according to a Queensland newspaper which has sighted a leaked draft of the report. The proposed guidelines from the Australian Health Ethics Committee are intended to educate the community about how long to persevere with “burdensome” treatment. It will advise relatives and doctors to withdraw treatment such as tube-feeding from comatose or brain-dead patients if the procedures are “risky, intrusive, destructive, exhausting, painful or repugnant” and if the cost outweighs the benefit or success.