Volume 7     Number 2     1993    

Advance Directives: Religious, Moral, and Theological Aspects - William J. Wood

Advanced health care directives, living wills, and durable power of attorney statutes are but a few of the legal devices that individuals may use to prescribe what type of medical treatment, if any, they should receive in the event they are incompetent to make their own health care decisions. Apart from the inherently personal nature of these end of life decisions, the very idea of allowing a person to define beforehand the manner of his or her own death raises potentially serious conflicts with the fundamental religious tenets of the person's chosen faith. In his essay, Mr. Wood recasts the traditionally legalistic debate over the prudence of recognizing the right to make one's own health care choices into a discussion of how such a right raises important theological considerations.

As a counterpoint to these theological perspectives, Mr. Wood describes the problem of translating them into a workable legal construct. Throughout his analysis, Mr. Wood refers to the laws of Indiana as an example of how the theological and legal disciplines have struggled to find common ground on the issue of providing individuals with the right to declare their own end of life health care choices. These legislative efforts, the author suggests, have helped clarify and unify many disparate concepts in this area of law and may provide guidance for reform in other states.

ARTICLES

Retirement Funding and the Curious Evolution of Individual Retirement Accounts

• Richard L. Kaplan
  

The Elder Witness--The Admissibility of Closed Circuit Television Testimony After Maryland v. Craig

• J. Steven Beckett, Steven D. Stennett
  

NOTES

ADEA and the Hostile Work Environment Claim: Are the Circuit Courts Dragging Their Feet at the Expense of the Harassed Older Worker?

• Margaret M. Gembala
  

The "New" Newlyweds: Marriage Among the Elderly, Suggestions to the Elder Law Practitioner

• Joanna Lyn Grama
  

A New Sexual Revolution?: Viagra as Pandora's Box for the Elderly

• Christopher A. Julka