Advance Directives are under-utilized, both from the fact that few Americans have them and that health professionals don’t always rely on Advance Directives provided by patients. Many health professionals have philosophical objections to their use. Using a fictitious case as background, five different objections to the use of Advance Directives will be discussed and arguments against those objections will be posed along with suggestions to improve Advance Directives.
BeauchampTChildressJ. Respect for autonomy. In: MappesTADegraziaD (eds). Principles of biomedical ethics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009, p.100–5.
3.
ParfitD. Divided minds and the nature of persons. In: BlakemoreCGreenfieldS (eds). Mindwaves: thoughts on intelligence, identity and consciousness. New York, Oxford: Blackwell, 1987, p.20.
QuanteM. Precedent autonomy and personal identity. Kennedy Inst of Ethics J1999; 9: 365–81.
6.
DresserR. Missing persons: legal perceptions of incompetent patients. Rutgers Law Rev1994; 46(2): 609–719.
7.
RichB. Personhood, patienthood, and clinical practice: reassessing advance directives. Psychol, Public Policy, and Law1998; 4(3): 610–28.
8.
GarrisonMSchneiderC.Deciding for others: Autonomy or beneficence? In: GarrisonMSchneiderC. The law of bioethics: Individual autonomy and social regulation. St Paul, MN: Thomson Reuters/West, 2003, p.473.
