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76 U. Det. Mercy L. Rev. 1079 (1998-1999)
An Alternative to Guardianship: Should Michigan Statutorily Allow Acute-Care Hospitals to Make Medical Treatment Decisions for Incompetent Patients who Have Neither Identifiable Surrogates nor Advance Directives

handle is hein.journals/udetmr76 and id is 1091 raw text is: NOTES An Alternative to Guardianship: Should Michigan Statutorily Allow Acute-Care Hospitals to Make Medical Treatment Decisions for Incompetent Patients who Have Neither Identifiable Surrogates nor Advance Directives? I. INTRODUCTION The increased number of elderly persons who will become cog- nitively impaired in the near future is a cause for concern to all in the health care professions.' This quote is rooted in the double-edged reality that although advances in health care have allowed Americans to live longer, the number of days in which usual activities are re- stricted because of illness or injury increases with age.2 The impend- ing retirement of the baby boomers, as well as projections that the country's oldest old, those eighty-five or older, will number 4.3 mil- lion by the year 2000 and 6 million by 2010,s illustrate that time is of the essence in formulating and implementing answers to the elderly's problems. In addressing one of the most problematic of all elder is- sues, guardianship, this Comment proposes a statute alleviating the need for guardianship in certain situations. This Comment will argue that Michigan should adopt a statute allowing hospitals to make medical treatment decisions for incompetent patients who do not have family, friends, a durable power of attorney or other advance di- rective, or an ascertainable surrogate.4 The proposed statute ensures 1. M.G. Weisensee, Respective Analysis of Guardians' Perceptions of Cognitively Im- paired Elderly, 8J. PROF. NuRsiNG 73 (1992). 2. See American ASS'N OF RETIRED PERSONS, A PROFILE OF OLDER AMERICANS (1990). 3. See Harry S. Margolis, The Changing Demographics of Elder Law: A Look Ahead, 8 THE ELDER AW REPORT 1(1997). 4. Although incompetence may result from numerous causes, such as devel- opmental disability, minority age, and so forth, this Comment will limit its discussion to situations in which incompetence stems from aging, causing the patient to be un-

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