Care of the Elderly: Legal issues in relation to medical and social care of the elderly

摘要

As our collective life expectancynextends further and further, our societynis confronted with a range of legal issuesnin relation to the care of the elderly,nprincipally but not exhaustively:nl The right to die with dignity andnadvance directives;nl Competence in relation to treatmentndecisions;nl The ambit of ‘do not resusitate’norders (DNR);nl The right to treatment and resourcenallocation;nl The right to security of a home.nIn a review article of this length itnis only possible to identify in broadnterms the issues and the current statenof the law. Fuller discussions are to benfound elsewhere.1