The Dangers of Directives or the False Security of Forms

Abstract

During the past several years, numerous studies have been conducted regarding advance directives (that is, living wills and durable powers of attorney (DPAs) for health care). Studies have examined how many individuals have executed advance directives, who is more likely to execute such directives, and whether factors such as education, income, race, religiosity, or family status affect the likelihood of having executed an advance directive or one's willingness to do so. Studies have also investigated the effectiveness of different educational strategies aimed at increasing the number of individuals who execute these documents. Finally, a number of researchers have looked at the implementation of advance directives (that is, whether they are followed in the institutional setting).Although we now have a better understanding of some of these issues, one area that has been virtually ignored is the reliability, validity, and overall user friendliness of the advance directive forms themselves, and, in particular, of the statutory advance directive forms.