The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo, who has terminal liver cancer, has requested treatment for his condition overseas.
He has been seen by German and American specialists in China and they confirmed he was in the final stages of the disease.
The First Hospital of China Medical University said on its website that the cancer had spread to his entire body. Mr Liu had accumulated a large amount of abdominal fluid and his condition was "quite serious," it added.
Shang Baojun, Liu's former lawyer, said the political prisoner wanted to go abroad.
"He again expressed a desire to go abroad for treatment, preferably in Germany, though the US would also be fine, and his family members said the same," Mr Shang told AP. "We sincerely hope this request will be approved."
The hospital said on Friday that they had ceased giving him cancer-fighting drugs over concerns they were further weakening his liver.
However, in recognition of his condition, Mr Liu’s younger and older brothers as well as their wives were being allowed to visit him.
"I think the authorities are in crisis mode. They too are not sure if Liu Xiaobo will pass away soon because his condition is quite obviously worsening," Hu Jia, a family friend, said.
China’s treatment of one of their most renowned political prisoners and only Noble Peace Prize winner, has been condemned worldwide. There have been numerous calls for his release on account of his current condition.
The United Nations spokeswoman Liz Throssell said that the UN should be given access to Mr Liu.
The 61-year-old activist received an 11-year-jail sentence for advocating sweeping political reforms and “inciting subversion of state power”.
He also assisted in writing a petition known as Charter 08, a manifesto signed by more than 350 Chinese human rights activists and intellectuals.
It called for changes to the political system and freedom of expression. "We should end the practice of viewing words as crimes," it stated.
In Mr Liu’s Noble lecture in absentia, released in 2010, he wrote: “Hatred can rot away at a person's intelligence and conscience.
"Enemy mentality will poison the spirit of a nation, incite cruel mortal struggles, destroy a society's tolerance and humanity, and hinder a nation's progress toward freedom and democracy.”
