Overview
- The Andhra Pradesh government approved formal modalities on July 8 to implement Supreme Court rulings that allow withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment for terminally ill patients.
- Patients may prepare an Advance Medical Directive while competent that must be signed in front of two witnesses, attested by a notary or gazetted officer, name a guardian, and be lodged with the local authority for custodian appointment.
- Hospitals must set up a Primary Medical Board of the attending doctor plus two doctors with at least five years’ experience to decide within 48 hours and, if it finds treatment futile, convene a Secondary Medical Board to review that decision.
- Before stopping life support, hospitals must notify a First-Class Judicial Magistrate and guardians can petition the High Court if the Secondary Board opposes withdrawal; the court may appoint an independent expert committee of senior doctors.
- Implementation and record-keeping fall to the state health administration—Director of Medical Education, Director of Secondary Health and district medical officers must oversee cases and preserve all records for three years, a change meant to reduce uncertainty for doctors and families.