Major Jananese medical center to facilitate advance directives
The National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontologywill start enabling elderly patients to document advance directives onend-of-life care in an attempt to spread the living will concept widelypracticed in the United States and other countries, center officialssaid Friday. Patients willing to document their intentions onterminal care will be given a form on which they can specify whatlife-support procedures they do or do not want, including heartmassage, artificial respiration, high doses of antibiotics, feedingtubes and water drips, they said. The measure has obtained basic approval from thecenter’s ethics panel and the forms will be distributed to outpatientsas soon as they are ready, the officials said. It is the first such move by a highly specializednational medical center and is expected to help disseminatedocumentation that has been introduced only by some medicalinstitutions in Japan, the officials said. Under the practice, the “terminal phase” is defined asan incurable and irreparable condition resulting in death in arelatively short period unless life-sustaining treatment is carriedout. In situations in which the next of kin differ on theirviews about such care, a situation that is rather common, the formsalso include space for patients to stipulate whom their doctors shouldconsult if they can no longer articulate their intentions, theofficials said. Copies of the completed forms will be kept by both thecenter and patients, and their contents can be changed anytime, theyadded.