Surrender the Policy
There are two ways to surrender a policy:
a. Simply call the insurance company to surrender the policy. You will receive whatever cash value left, which possibly not enough to pay the resulting tax bill, but it's better than nothing.
b. Life settlement transaction is another possible way, which could work for senior policy holders, it involves the sale of the life insurance to a third party buyer or investor - the current owner will be off the hook, but still has to pay tax for whatever the value received from the sale, and the settlement value could be higher than the net cash value of the policy.
The new buyer of the policy will take over your policy and deal with all the consequences. Obviously the new owner will receive the death benefit payment when the insured dies, that's the reason he or she made the investment.