Factors for rejection of treatment

Some authors call such incurable diseases Varjaniya (forbidden) roga, i.e., diseases where treatment is forbidden. For the Ayurvedic practitioner it is clear that the departure of such a person is certain, and thus it is forbidden to treat this disease for ethical reasons. The verse makes it clear that the symptoms imply that treatment is useless because the disease is incurable and death is near. To treat such a patient at any cost would mean prolonging the disease and thus prolonging the suffering of the patient and his family.

It is difficult for people to accept that some diseases are incurable after a certain point, especially if they are overly emotionally invested in the person whose life is ending. At their final culmination before the person dies, all diseases fall into this category. This is the phase before death, which is the only possible outcome. This includes Autsukya, a disruption of prana. The endocrine system and the nervous system are distribution networks for prana. When this is not equivalently distributed throughout the body, then the body begins to wither, like a flower that does not receive what it needs to remain fresh. All of the organs begin to wither, and that contributes to the onset of death (organ failure). There are four sets of signs that the disease is incurable. The first set is that all of the conditions/symptoms are the opposite to that of a curable disease, and prana is disrupted. The second is that the person becomes fixated, mentally, on one thing and is not able to even comprehend the idea of change and cure. For example, in systems where people are compensated for a disability, some prefer to receive compensation than to resolve what is wrong. When people are emotionally completely depressed and convinced that there is no way out, that is the third sign. The fourth is loss of sight - the eyes are open but the vision no longer functions. These are all cases where treatment is in vain, it makes no sense, it serves no purpose. Whether this process takes place over years or in one second is of no consequence, the end result is on the way.

In the term an-upakrama, kram means a chain, upa means continuation, and an means absence - this means that the chain of physiology cannot be continued. Upakrama itself means "solution". That means there is no solution to the problem of the person's disease. 

Our desire and hunger to live is what brings us to embodiment in the first place, but it has to remain within the boundaries of what the body can take.