Competency and Common law: why and how Decision-Making Capacity Criteria Should be Drawn From the Capacity-Determination Process

Determining competence to request physician-assisted suicide should be no more difficult than determining competence to refuse life-prolonging treatment. In both cases, criteria & procedures should be developed out of the process of actually making capacity determinations; they should not be promulgated a priori. Because patient demeanor plays a critical role in capacity determinations, it should be made part of the record of such determinations through greater use of video- & audiotapes. (19 notes.)