Living Wills
Advance Directive Adherence
Compliance by health personnel or proxies with the stipulations of ADVANCE DIRECTIVES (or similar directives such as RESUSCITATION ORDERS) when patients are unable to direct their own care.
Right to Die
Mental Competency
Wills
Legal documents that are declarations of individuals' wishes regarding the disposal of their property or estate after death; esp: written instruments, legally executed, by which dispositions are made of estates. LIVING WILLS are written declarations regarding prolongation of life by extraordinary means.
Attitude to Death
Advance Directives
Withholding Treatment
Withholding or withdrawal of a particular treatment or treatments, often (but not necessarily) life-prolonging treatment, from a patient or from a research subject as part of a research protocol. The concept is differentiated from REFUSAL TO TREAT, where the emphasis is on the health professional's or health facility's refusal to treat a patient or group of patients when the patient or the patient's representative requests treatment. Withholding of life-prolonging treatment is usually indexed only with EUTHANASIA, PASSIVE, unless the distinction between withholding and withdrawing treatment, or the issue of withholding palliative rather than curative treatment, is discussed.