End of Life Decisions — The Law and the Law Professor

Prof. Ray D. Madoff (Boston College Law School) has recently published a thoughtful and insightful article entitled Autonomy and End-of-Life Decision-Making, Trial, Dec. 2006, at 36 [you must an AAJ, formerly ATLA, member to access this article on-line; however, another version of this article entitled End-of-Life Decision Making: Reflections of a Lawyer and a Daughter is available from SSRN].

Prof. Madoff begins by discussing the basic law applicable to medical powers of attorney and directives to physicians (also called advance directives, living wills, health care proxies, etc.).  She focuses on the issue of whether decisions made and preferences given while a person is young and/or healthy accurately predict what the person actually desires at a later time when he or she faces a serious or debilitating illness.

Included in the article, is a very touching story of how Prof. Madoff had to live though these issues after her own father was disabled from a massive stroke.