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Should the elderly not bear full responsibility for their poor choices simply because they are old? In the last few years, according to a front-page article in the New York Times, thousands of older Americans have filed lawsuits arguing that broadly-worded elder abuse statutes create special protections that shield them from their unwise decisions, even though those decisions were freely made. The article focuses on the plight of Robert J. Pyle, who eight years ago had more than $1 million in assets and was looking forward to a comfortable retirement. Today, at age 81, Mr. Pyle has lost everything and is living in a small room in his stepdaughter's house. Mr. Pyle, a retired aerospace engineer, willingly gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars to a woman whom he believed would eventually pay him back. Then, in increasingly desperate attempts to right himself financially, he took out a series of loans on his home that he could ill-afford, finally selling the house for much less than its market value. Mr. Pyle is now suing, contending that mortgage brokers and banks defrauded him by helping him take out loans they knew he could not repay, and that the buyer of his home deceived him by paying far less than it was worth. Mr. Pyle, does not claim that he should be compensated because he was not in his right mind at the time he made these decisions, but simply because he is old. "These lawsuits raise controversial questions," the article states. "In the eyes of the law, should the elderly be treated like adolescents, who are not entirely responsible for their poor decisions, but are also barred from making certain choices on their own? Or should they have autonomy, and therefore be accountable for their blunders?" The article quotes A. Kimberley Dayton of the Center for Elder Justice and Policy at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. "We know that, statistically, seniors are at enormous risk for fraud," says Prof. Dayton. "It's foolish to ignore that. But there's also a huge dilemma in determining when someone is just being eccentric, versus someone who is a victim of undue influence." To read the full New York Times article, published Dec. 24, 2007, click here. (Free registration required and article is available free of charge for only one week.)
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