Concept of living Will and Request for DNR- Do Not resuscitate

Most people in Mumbai have made a will about their flat. Few have written down what they want if a stroke leaves them unable to speak in an ICU, with a ventilator breathing for them and the family arguing in the corridor. A living will is a will about treatment, not property, and a Do Not Resuscitate order is the instruction that stops a team from restarting a heart that has stopped. India recognises the first in court-made guidelines and, for mental illness, by statute; the second sits uneasily between medical practice and law.

In two minutes

A living will (advance directive) is a written statement made while capable about what treatment to accept or refuse if capacity is later lost; India recognises it through Common Cause v Union of India (2018) generally and through ss.5 to 13 of the Mental Healthcare Act 2017 for mental healthcare, while a DNR order is a medical instruction not to attempt resuscitation, valid only within those safeguards.

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