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Huh, what is AMD?
 Where do you see this?
In articles on estate planning.
What does it mean?
An Advance Medical Directive (AMD) is a legal document that a person signs to indicate that in case he becomes terminally ill and unconscious, he does not want any extraordinary life-sustaining treatment.
Why is it important?
The Advance Medical Directive Act was passed in 1996 but the take-up has been slow. Signing an AMD gives us the power to determine, when we are well and of sound mind, what our treatment should be when we can no longer decide for ourselves. This allows doctors to act in their patients’ best interests. For instance, most patients want to die at home, spending their last moments with family and friends, rather than be hooked to machines in an intensive care unit (ICU).
But in the absence of an AMD and when the patient is too ill to express his wishes, doctors can do little but follow the distraught family’s orders. Of course, ICU treatment is always recommended when the patient has a reasonable hope of recovering to a painless and lucid state.
So you want to use the term. Just say...
“My doctor recommended the AMD as a way to avoid a prolonged and painful death.”
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