Nurses can make a valuable contribution by ensuring that the informed-consent process is accurately met (Virani & Sofer, 2003). Nurses must become proficient in assessing decisional capacity and take an active role when the multidisciplinary team is determining decisional capacity. When nurses and other healthcare professionals assess capacity objectively, two types of mistakes can be avoided: first,, mistakenly preventing persons who have the capacity to make healthcare deci¬sions from directing the course of their treatment; and, second, failing to protect incapacitated persons from the harmful effects of their decisions (President’s Com¬mission, 1982). It is easy when a patient is very ill to let someone take over decision making for the person. However, as long as an adult patient has the capacity to make the decision, it is her/his right to do so. Nurses should make efforts to meet their legal and ethical obli¬gations so that patients retain their rights to -make deci¬sions for as long as they are able.