Terms and Definitions

Advance Directive	Written legal documents by which a patient expresses his wishes concerning the kind of care he wants to receive in the event he becomes unable to make his own treatment decisions.

Autonomy	A concept to describe the capacity of an individual to make independent choices.
CPR	CPR, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, is a set of specific medical procedures designed to establish circulation and breathing in a patient who’s suffered an arrest of both. CPR is a supportive therapy, designed to maintain perfusion to vital organs while attempts are made to restore spontaneous breathing and cardiac rhythm.
DNR	DNR, do not resuscitate, is placed on a patient’s medical chart to indicate there should be no attempt to restart a failed heartbeat or restore breathing by any means such as by using CPR (see CPR), a ventilator, electrical stimulation, or use of medications for this purpose. A DNR order can be changed and experts say it should be reviewed regularly.

Futility	A term used in medical care to describe medical interventions that will have little effect on outcome or prognosis.
Palliative sedation	The practice of relieving distress in a terminally ill person in the last hours or days of a dying patient’s life. The objective is to control pain and discomfort, not to shorten the patient’s life.

Prohibition of treatment	A (written) statement advising health professionals that no exceptional measures should be used to attempt to save a person’s life.
Right to Die	A basic conviction that end-of-life decisions should be an individual choice.