Denying you legal or medical intervention is gaining momentum daily. You may have read the disturbing developments in news headlines during the last several years. The prospect of new legislation under a new administration is anything but comforting to anyone except some in the medical profession and government bureaus.

Medical Terms Related to Life-Sustaining Treatment 

• Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)-An action taken to revive a person in cardiac or respiratory arrest.
• Code-The summoning of professionals trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation to revive a person in cardiac or respiratory arrest.
• No Code-An order signed by a patient's doctor stating that cardiopulmonary resuscitation should not be performed if cardiac or pulmonary arrest occurs.  Also called a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order.
• Irreversibly ill-The state of debilitation (coma or persistent vegetative state) from which the patient will not recover. 
• Terminally ill-The medical state of being near death where there is no hope of cure.
• Life-sustaining treatment-Any treatment given to a terminally ill person.
• Palliative care-Measures taken to keep a terminally ill person as comfortable as possible.