title: Foreword: planning for the future through advance directive instruments.
abstract: The Foreword traces the development of advance directive instruments and discusses their legal enforceability and many benefits. Despite their advantages, advance directives remain underused and are frequently ignored by service providers. The contributors to this special issue discuss why this is so and offer and debate a variety of remedial proposals. They analyze the various legal, clinical, ethical, and practical issues presented by the use of advance directives for health and mental health care and examine new directions in their application. The Foreword describes the organization of this special issue, summarizes the articles it contains, and comments on their significance.
authors.affiliation: University of Miami School of Law, 1311 Miller Drive, Room 476, Coral Gables, Florida 33146, USA. bwinick@law.miami.edu
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Winick
mesh_terms: D032722:Advance Care Planning / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D024362:Advance Directive Adherence / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016223:Advance Directives / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends; D003376:Counseling; D003657:Decision Making; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006679:HIV Seropositivity; D006801:Humans; D033241:Lawyers; D016743:Mental Competency; D028642:Persons with Psychiatric Disorders; D009735:Nursing Homes; D010343:Patient Admission; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D028723:Personhood; D010819:Physician's Role; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011329:Prisoners; D019727:Proxy; D011996:Records; D035842:Research Subjects; D014481:United States; D014918:Wills