Elder Law Symposium
| VOLUME
26 |
Winter 1996
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NUMBER
2 |
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Last Rights? Conforming Physician-Assisted Suicide in Law and Society: Legal Liturgies on Physician-Assisted Suicide
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Rebecca C. Morgan, D. Dixon Sutherland |
| One of the most controversial legal issues today is an individual's right to seek physician-assisted suicide. At the center of this debate is the ethical concept of autonomy or self-determination. Courts are currently struggling with the difficult decision of determining what constitutes an individual's "last rights" and whether those rights stand in direct conflict with current public policy. In this Article Professor Rebecca C. Morgan and Dr. D. Dixon Sutherland survey and assess three distinct models that have surfaced in society for constructing a public policy on Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS). |
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Public-Private Partnerships and Long-Term Care: Time for a Re-Examination
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Janice Cooper Pasaba, Alison Barnes |
| This Article addresses the current controversy surrounding long-term care for the elderly. Professor Alison Barnes and Janice Cooper Pasaba present several different reasons why the current acute care model system (treating the problems as they arise) is increasingly inappropriate for facing the challenges of an ever increasing elderly population. In this Article, the authors consider the most appropriate options for paying for long-term care assistance, and in doing such, the authors call for a re-examination of the public/private partnership program as a means of alleviating a state's financial burden in providing adequate long-term care for the elderly. |
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Aging Workers in the Postindustrial Era
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Gary Minda |
| In this Article, Professor Gary Minda explores how the expanding field of elder law relates to the developing field of employment law. Professor Minda's Article examines how the regime of at-will employment has responded (or failed to respond) to the plight of older workers (workers over the age of forty) who are struggling to survive the current wave of "restructuring" or "downsizing" occurring in the "postindustrial era." Professor Minda suggests that the downsizing of aging workers in the postindustrial era presents a threat to our society by undermining worker morale, adversely affecting the work ethic, widening income inequality, exacerbating the pending retirement crisis, and further deepening the unemployability of elderly workers. Professor Minda requests that scholars and practitioners from the fields of both employment law and elder law unite and face the challenges of an ever increasing, aging world in the postindustrial era. |
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The Nursing Home Resident's Rights Act - A Good Idea Gone Bad!
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Daniel A. Martinez, Troy J. Crotts |
| In this Article, Troy J. Crotts and Daniel A. Martinez present an analysis of the newly passed Florida Residents' Rights Act. The authors propose that the Residents' Rights Act has gone beyond the legislature's intent resulting in a statutory scheme which may have punitive effects upon nursing home facilities. Moreover, Mr. Crotts and Mr. Martinez suggest ha the Act should be amended to provide increased protection of rights of the elderly and effective protection of the rights of nursing home facilities. |
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Reverse Mortgages: An Innovative Tool for Elder Law Attorneys
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Carolyn H. Sawyer |
| The purpose of this Article is to demonstrate to elder law attorneys the important role a reverse mortgage can play in the financial future of elderly clients. Carolyn H. Sawyer uses the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), as the base model for its reverse mortgage. Furthermore, this Article demonstrates the potential value of state-sponsored consumer education programs which privatize health costs and alleviate a state's financial burden of indigent elderly patient medical costs. |
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The Special Housing Needs of Older Persons: An Essay
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Lawrence A. Frolik |
| In an Essay adopted from his forthcoming book entitled Residential Options for Older and Disabled Clients, Professor Lawrence A. Frolik describes the special housing needs of the elderly. Professor Frolik suggests that, along with income security and good health, housing is one of the main determining factors of an elder person's happiness. In this Essay, Professor Frolik suggests that the first step toward fulfilling of the needs of the elderly is an understanding of the specific housing needs of the elderly. |
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The Law and Economics of Aging and the Aged
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Patrick E. Longan |
| In this Book Review of Judge Richard A. Posner's Aging and Old Age, Professor Patrick Longan examines three of the main insights which appear in that work; physician-assisted suicide, the failure of the baby boom generation to save sufficient for retirement and the effect of a mandatory retirement age in American law school's faculty. Through this Book Review, Professor Longan offers the reader more insight into Judge Posner's views on the above mentioned topics. Furthermore, Professor Longan adds his own views to complement those expressed by Judge Posner. |
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Advance Directives: Peace of Mind or False Security?
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Vicki Joiner Bowers |
| This Comment explores the present problems with executing advance directives regarding end-of-life decisions. Vicki Joiner Bowers outlines the history leading up to the United States Supreme Court's recognition of a Constitutional right of privacy in Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health. She also reveals the problems that health-care practitioners face when a patient's advance directive is unclear, and how the advance directive issue is blurring into the right-to-die movement. This Comment provides a ready source of state statutes addressing advance directives, living wills, and surrogate appointment. Finally, Ms. Bowers discusses several principles to assure unchallenged advance directive execution, and suggests several statutory reforms to protect the Constitutional right to privacy. |
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