What Is Life-Sustaining Treatment?
Life-sustaining treatment according to New Hampshire law means “any medical procedures or interventions which utilize mechanical or other medically administered means to sustain, restore, or supplant a vital function which, in the written judgment of the attending physician or ARNP, would serve only to artificially postpone the moment of death, and where the person is near death or is permanently unconscious. ‘Life-sustaining treatment’ includes, but is not limited to, the following: mechanical respiration, kidney dialysis or the use of other external mechanical or technological devices. Life sustaining treatment may include drugs to maintain blood pressure, blood transfusions, and antibiotics. ‘Life-sustaining treatment’ shall not include the administration of medication, natural ingestion of food or fluids by eating and drinking, or the performance of any medical procedure deemed necessary to provide comfort or to alleviate pain” (RSA 137-J:2 XIII).
Life-sustaining treatment maintains life when an organ or body system has ceased to function at a level adequate for survival. Life-sustaining technologies include antibiotics and other medications, IVs, machines or medical procedures that can keep a person alive. An explanation of the most common forms of life-sustaining treatment, how they are used and what they do is included in the glossary.
Life-sustaining treatment refers to any treatment which in the view of a health care provider, is necessary to sustain the life of the person concerned. Life sustaining treatment may include any of the following: • day-to-day medical treatment; • major surgical operations; • artificial nutrition and hydration; or • organ transplantation. Whether or not the treatment is considered life-sustaining will be determined by the situation in which the treatment is given.
