Although helpful in many ways, the Guidelines for Assessing Mental Capacity and Impaired Judgment fall short in 3 areas. First, the term capacity is poorly defined & explicated. Second, the inevitable role of the evaluator’s own values is given short shrift. Finally, the Guidelines rely too heavily on lists & formal test without guidelines about what is most important. This failure threatens to further burden dying patients with unwanted & unnecessary bureaucratic intrusion. (14 notes)