Introduction

The last thing people want to be faced with in old age is a legal and ethical quagmire. Older people may be confronted with questions involving

• Their ability to make health care decisions
• Their selection of people who can make health and financial decisions for them
• Their medical care preferences when near death
• Their living arrangements

Such questions may become legal issues when the answers are determined in part by laws. Such questions always become ethical issues because the answers involve principles and personal preferences that guide decision making without the authority of a formal law.

Having to make decisions about health care when near death and having to fight for the right to make those decisions can bring on anxiety and stress, increased costs, and a feeling of loss of control. With some careful planning, however, older people can use the legal system to their advantage.

The legal and ethical issues that older people most commonly encounter are not unique to this age group. However, many older people face these issues with fewer family members and fewer financial resources with which to seek legal counsel. And they often face these issues when they are sick and frail. Additional resources and support are usually welcomed but should not indiscriminately be offered to a person based on age alone. Rather, older people benefit most when these resources and services are tailored to meet specific needs.