Introduction

Abstract

This book sheds light on the challenges and potentials of making healthcare decisions at the end-of-life using advance directives. Advance directives provide the opportunity for people to express their refusal to consent in the future when they become unable to do so. They exemplify the kind of concern where practical questions of clinical treatment meet long standing conflicts of philosophical principles. The book shows why some advance directives often end up being ineffective, invites us to rethink the approaches to advance directives and explores strategies for improving their effectiveness. It provides a new decision-making framework aimed at making advance directives legally effective and offers a set of golden rules in the process of creating advance directives.