What Is Life-Sustaining Treatment?

Other District of Columbia Estate Planning FAQs

• Q: What Is An Advance Directive?
  A: A written document that tells what a person wants or does not want if he/she in the future cannot make his/her wishes known regarding medical treatment.
• Q: Do I Need To Have It Notarized?
  A: No. The advance directive can be properly executed with the signature of two witnesses.
• Q: What Should I Do With The Advance Directive After I Sign It?
  A: Give your doctor, nurse and person you appoint to make your medical decisions on your behalf, your family and anyone else who might be involved in your care, a copy of … More
• Q: What Is Artificial Nutrition And Hydration?
  A: When food and water are fed to a person through a tube.
• Q: What Is An Autopsy?
  A: It's an examination done on a dead body to find the cause of death.
• Q: What Is Comfort Care?
  A: Care that helps to keep a person comfortable but does not make him/her better. Bathing, turning, keeping a person's lips moist are types of comfort care.
• Q: What Is Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (Cpr)?
  A: Treatment to try and restart a person's breathing or heartbeat. CPR may be done by pushing on the chest, by putting a tube down the throat, or by other treatment.
• Q: What Is A Durable Power Of Attorney For Health Care?
  A: An advance directive that appoints someone to make medical decisions for a person if in the future he/she cannot make his/her own medical decisions.
• Q: What Is Organ And Tissue Donation?
  A: When a person permits his/her organs (such as eyes or kidneys) and other parts of the body (such as skin) to be removed after death to be transplanted for use by … More
• Q: What Is A Persistent Vegetative State?
  A: When a person is unconscious with no hope of regaining consciousness even with medical treatment. The body may move and eyes may be open, but as far as anyone can … More