The Advanced Medical Directive (AMD) is a legal document whereby you sign to inform your doctor that you do not want any extraordinary life-sustaining treatment to be used to prolong your life in the event of becoming terminally ill and unconscious. “Terminally ill” is defined as an incurable condition caused by injury or disease where there is no reasonable prospect of a temporary of permanent recovery where death would be imminent regardless of use of extraordinary life-sustaining treatment, which refers to any medical procedure or measure, and would serve one sole purpose: postponing the moment of death of the patient.
Euthanasia is different from the Advanced Medical Directive. Euthanasia, also known as mercy killing, is the deliberate ending of life of a person suffering an illness by unnatural mean while Advanced Medical Directive are instructions to your doctor not to prolong your life with extraordinary life-sustaining treatment where there is no hope for recover from an imminent death. Under section 17 of the AMD Act explicitly states that it is against euthanasia and nothing in the Act shall condone, authorize or approve abetment or suicide, mercy killing or euthanasia.
Making an AMD is a voluntary decision. New advances in medical knowledge and technology create new choices for both patients and health care providers. Some of these raise new ethical and legal issues. One issue is that even though modern medical technology can prolong life in terminal illness it can only be used to delay the dying process. In such situations, further medical intervention is ineffective. The terminally ill person, who are unable to express their wishes at that time, may want to be spared from further suffering and be allowed to die naturally.
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