It is never too early to discuss care preferences for patients with Alzheimer disease or other dementias. Alzheimer disease is a life-limiting disease with a median survival time from diagnosis of 4.2 ...

No one likes to think about worst-case scenarios, particularly when it comes to their future health problems, and what could happen in the event they are unable to make their own health care decisions ...

With over 35 years as a dedicated physician, I've witnessed the gift given to loved ones left behind when an advance directive is completed and available for healthcare professionals to follow in the ...

It’s a common hope that most people share: that their end-of-life wishes will be respected if something happened and they couldn’t make their own health care decisions. Yet only about a third of ...

Nobody likes to contemplate — let alone talk about — one’s own death or that of a loved one. However, now that medicine has advanced to the point that it can keep people alive, with or without ...

As an emergency physician at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, I see patients with life-threatening diseases every day. Often, it would be helpful to understand a patient’s individual wishes about their medical ...

An Oregon woman who was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's signed an advance directive, stating that no measures to prolong her life should be taken. But now the state is requiring the nursing ...

Terri Schiavo's family probably never imagined the decisions they would have to make regarding her care. But the court battle surrounding this 41-year-old woman, who was in a vegetative state since a ...

More and more Americans say they want a “good” death, which usually means dying peacefully at home, surrounded by loved ones. Documents called advance directives can help them achieve that goal by ...

Five minutes. That is all I had to make my case: to convince this 80-year-old man to fill out an advanced care directive. John, as I’ll call him, had served in the military for over thirty years, ...