Health Care Decisions

When your child reaches the age of 18, you no longer have the same level of access to, or authority over, his or her financial, educational and medical information. There are steps you can take to make sure your child...

Medicare has made discussions with health care providers about end-of-life options a covered benefit.   ...

Although depression was initially given as the cause of actor Robin Williams’ suicide in 2014, his widow says autopsy results lay the blame on Lewy body dementia, a fairly common but hard-to-diagnose form of dementia. ...

If you are in the hospital, the last thing you want is for a family member or a trusted friend to be denied information about your condition or prognosis.

The traditional way to communicate one’s wishes is through an advance directive, and a growing number of Americans have these documents.  But while advance directives are a good start, by themselves they may not guarantee that your wishes will be...

Five states have enacted laws giving terminally ill patients access to experimental drugs, and 25 other states are considering similar legislation.  But it’s unclear whether these so-called “right-to-try” laws will help anyone other than state legislators embracing a politically popular...

Is your family of the “Leave It to Beaver” variety -- opposite-gender parents, the first marriage for each, one or more kids, all healthy and thriving? If so, your estate plan will probably be pretty straightforward. But if not, it's...

In an emergency, it can be difficult for family members or paramedics to get quick access to your medical information.

The popular New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast has created a graphic memoir of coping with her parents' final years, titled "Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?" In recent interviews, Chast has had nothing but praise for the elder law...