Justice Bharat Deshpande of the Bombay High Court at Goa signed his living will or advanced medical care directive on the day of his retirement.
- The living will help a person opt for dignity in the final moments of life.
- A living will is a legal document specifying the desired medical care one wishes to have if he or she loses the ability to communicate.
- Living wills have been legal since 2018, when the Supreme Court of India created a process to allow terminally-ill patients, with no hope of a cure, to withhold or withdraw treatment and die with dignity.
- Living wills allow persons to make choices about future medical care. Living wills have to be signed in the presence of two witnesses, attested before a notary or a gazetted officer, and handed over to a “competent officer” in the local government who will act as a custodian.
- If the patient becomes terminally ill and does not have decision-making capacity, the treating doctor is to authenticate the living will against the copy held with the custodian or against digital health records, if any.
- The living will guidelines require that the decisions on withholding or withdrawing treatment are certified first by a primary medical board and then confirmed by a secondary medical board.
