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Durable Power of Attorney

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Encyclopedia of Aging and Public Health

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For various reasons ranging from convenience to physical and mental incapacitation, individuals sometimes want or need others to make financial and personal (e.g., health care) decisions and take actions for them. The law provides mechanisms to accomplish planned, voluntary delegations of authority from one person to another.

The standard power of attorney (POA) is a written legal instrument authorizing a person (designated an agent or attorney‐in‐fact) to sign documents and conduct transactions on behalf of the individual who has delegated away that authority (the principal or maker). The principal can delegate as much (e.g., a general or complete designation) or as little (e.g., a delegation specifically delineating the types of choices the agent may and may not make) power as desired. The principal may terminate or revoke the arrangement at any time, as long as the principal remains mentally competent to do so.

The POA in its traditional form does not work well as a method for...

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Suggested Readings

  • Dubler NN (2001) Creating and supporting the proxy‐decider: the lawyer‐proxy relationship. Georgia Law Rev 35:517–538

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  • Gunter‐Hunt G, Mahoney JE, Sieger CE (2002) A comparison of state advance directive documents. Gerontologist 42(1):51–60

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  • Hall MA, Ellman IM, Strouse DS (1999) Health care law and ethics. West Group, St. Paul, MN

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  • Sabatino CP (1999) The legal and functional status of the medical proxy: suggestions for statutory reform. J Law Med Ethics 27(1):52–68

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Authors
  1. Marshall B. Kapp
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio

    Sana JD Loue PhD, MPH

  2. School of Medicine, University Hospitals Case Medical Center Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio

    Martha Sajatovic MD

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© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Kapp, M.B. (2008). Durable Power of Attorney. In: Loue, S.J., Sajatovic, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Aging and Public Health. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-33754-8_141

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-33754-8_141

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-33753-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-33754-8

  • eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine

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