For once, maybe Florida is a leader instead of behind the times. Actually, Florida does have some pretty darn good laws in the area of elder rights and protections.

Now, I need to make a clarification. There is a huge difference between refusing to honor the decision of a patient or surrogate just because their instructions are written on the wrong "form" one the one hand, and merely requesting that patients or their surrogates reduce their instructions to writing on a specific form that is familiar to them and therefore easier for them to follow, while fully intending to honor and comply with all of the instructions and decisions of the patient or surrogate, whatever they may be, on the other hand.

As long as they are doing what the patient or surrogate directs, there's no problem with them saying "Okay, we'll do as you say, but please just put it in writing on the form our folks are used to, so there are no mistakes about you want us to do."

We are discussing something very fundamental here, and that is the right to self-determination and to control one's own body and destiny, either for ourself or through another trusted person we've selected to speak for us when we longer can. This is perhaps the most basic right and freedom of all. If that right is not being respected by the medical community, or by your or your loved one's physician, then something, somewhere, has gone seriously wrong. You don't have to take it, and decisive and immediate corrective and enforcement action is called for.

Jeff