States generally allow a person (principal) to appoint another person (agent) to make health care decisions, receive protected health information, or both on the principal’s behalf. In many states, ...

An advance directive for the state where you live may not be effective in another state. Some states have provisions that respect out-of-state directives as long as they conform to the requirements of ...

Jennifer Lagemann is a former family caregiver, as well as a professional caregiver and administrator at home care agencies. She works as a writer and researcher, helping care providers create patient ...

An advance directive is a legally binding document regulated by state laws. Advance directives are subject to The Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA), 1990, a federal law that encourages individuals ...

While advance directives are quite common for patients with physical impairments, advance directives for people with mental impairments are controversial. In many countries, including Germany, there ...

The article by Drs-Blackmer and Ross on ‘Awareness and use of Advance Directives in the Spinal Cord Injured Population’ (Spinal Cord 2002; 40: 581–594) highlights the importance of health-care advance ...

On this episode of Social Distance, James Hamblin and Katherine Wells talk with Edo Banach, the president and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. They discuss how to create ...

Dr. Jauhar is a cardiologist who writes frequently about medical care and public health. He is the author of “My Father’s Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer’s.” See more of our coverage in your ...

There are a number of assumptions that the legitimacy of a particular application of an advance directive appears to operate under. First, there is the assumption that the author of the advance ...

Columns share an author’s personal perspective. Life is a terminal condition; everyone who lives eventually dies. So medicine’s role is not just to treat and possibly cure diseases, but to improve the ...