Healthcare Proxies and Living Wills According to James, Rose, Sussman, and Simpson

Reflection
Lawrence James
James' response to the questions starts with a description of the term incapacity. Here, James describes what usually leads to healthcare proxies and living wills. I find this quite apt because it helps the reader to make sense of what James is responding to. He then describes healthcare proxies clearly depicting healthcare proxies as people who are entitled to a patient's decisions. He proceeds to describe what a living will is, noting that it is a document with instructions on what should be done once a person is incapacitated. He combines this section with the next bit, where he also offers the advantages and disadvantages of a living will. He aptly notes that living will force people with little knowledge about healthcare to make crucial decisions concerning their health. He finishes the article by offering instructions on how best to choose between a living will and a healthcare proxy. James does a good job of not veering off the topic and answers the listed questions.
Richard Rose
Rose attacks the questions from the first paragraph explaining the need for contingencies in the event a person becomes incapacitated. An explanation as to why there is a need to communicate such directives is provided with examples of the different directives provided as well. Rose proceeds to provide a clear distinction between living wills and healthcare proxies. Here, Rose makes use of a lot of resources which helps to enhance the work. He clarifies that living wills are simply instruction documents, while healthcare proxies are people who are given the mandate to speak on behalf of a patient. He proceeds to also provide the advantages and disadvantages of each directive relative to each other, noting that living wills are advantageous because of the specificity. On the other hand, he notes that healthcare proxies are faulty mainly because the person left to make decisions may not be competent enough to do the same. On living wills, he notes that there is a likelihood that there will be gaps that will have to be filled by family or ph...