ADs are instructions. They are
typically executed in the form of
legal documents that indicate treat-
ment preferences and designate de-
cision makers to be consulted in
the event the individual is decision-
ally incapacitated (Beauchamp &
Childress, 2009). The passage of the
Patient Self Determination Act in
1990 mandated that health care insti-
tutions: (a) ask each patient if he or
she has an AD, (b) acknowledge any
existing ADs, and (c) offer informa-
tion about ADs if the individual is
interested. The hope of this legisla-
tion was that individuals would in-
dicate their preferences for LST and
designate a surrogate decision maker
via these instructions, thereby ensur-
ing that their preferences would be
known in the event of decisional in-
capacity. However, this effort is con-
sidered to be only partially success-
ful, primarily because ADs focus on
accepting or rejecting specific treat-
ments in the event of irreversible
illness, not on outcomes (e.g., func-
tional status). In addition, they often
limit the conditions of withholding
or withdrawing LSTs to situations of
permanent unconsciousness or per-
sistent minimal consciousness, situ-
ations that are rare and contentious
in terms of diagnosis and prognosis
(Teno, Gruneir, Schwartz, Nanda, &
Wetle, 2007). Given that the ADs of
many older critically ill patients can
offer only limited guidance in deci-
sion making, other measures to sup-
port clinician and surrogate decision
making must be used.