BIFOCALJuly-August2013_cover_jpg_imagep_107x141The August issue of the e-Journal from the ABA Commission on Law and Aging is now circulating. It is a particularly rich issue of Bifocal, including articles on the critical importance of evidence-based priorities for support of legal services, comparative state information on use of POLST forms, and a report on funding of 11 new legal service projects by the Administration on Aging.

My favorite article, however, is by Charlie Sabatino, titled “Eight Advance Care Planning Lessons That Took Me Thirty Years to Learn.” I suspect seasoned elder law attorneys might join me in concluding that this article should be mandatory reading for all general practitioners (and health care providers?!). The over-simplified reliance on “form book”living wills needs to be changed. As Sir Charles implies, lawyers can be part of the solution and should be less a part of the problem.

Any additional observations on the practical problems with advance care directives?

Please feel free to comment below!

Photo of Katherine C. Pearson Katherine C. Pearson

Katherine C. Pearson is a Professor of Law and the Arthur L. and Sandra S. Piccone Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Her scholarship focuses on laws and policies connected to aging and she has frequently included age-related issues…

Katherine C. Pearson is a Professor of Law and the Arthur L. and Sandra S. Piccone Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Her scholarship focuses on laws and policies connected to aging and she has frequently included age-related issues in her teaching of courses on contract law, conflicts of law and nonprofit organizations law.  She is a regular speaker for continuing education programs, both for consumers and lawyers, to address cutting edge concerns in consumer protection for older adults.  She is the author of articles and chapters on access to justice, senior living options including continuing care and life plan communities, long-term care financing and filial obligations, and is the co-author of a treatise, The Law of Financial Abuse and Exploitation (Bisel 2011).

She authored chapters for the Research Handbook on Law, Society and Ageing, published in 2024 as part of a series on law and society handbooks offered by international publisher Edward Elgar. She is a 2024-2025 Fulbright Scholar in Canada and was in residence at the University of Ottawa in the Fall of 2024 as the Research Chair in Health Law, Policy and Ethics.  Her earlier experience as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar (based at the Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, and working in Ireland, Portugal, and the U.K. in 2009-10), resulted in publications, including an article with an international, historical perspective on ethical concerns for attorneys representing older adults, entitled “The Lesson of the Irish Family Pub,” published by Stetson Law Review.

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