Not all health decisions require the same level of decision-making capacity in order to make a valid decision. Decision-making capacity is not an “on-off switch” (Mezey, Mitty, & Ramsey, 1997); a patient does not either have it or not. Rather, capacity is usually viewed as task-specific; an individual may be able to perform some tasks adequately and may have the abil¬ity to make some decisions, but may still be unable to perform all tasks or make all decisions. The notion of “decision-specific capacity” assumes that an individual has or lacks the capacity for a particular decision at a particular time and under a particular set of circum¬stances (Mezey et al, 1997; Mitty & Mezey, 2004).