AUGUST 30, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 9 When an adult becomes incapable of handling his or her own personal and financial affairs, someone must step forward and pay bills, make medical decisions and handle a host of daily decisions. Court proceedings, agency investigations and the plans made by the adult before becoming incapacitated will all…
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AUGUST 23, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 8 Vanessa Henningfeld first met 71-year-old George Milas when she visited his Wisconsin home to sell him a long-term care insurance policy. The two of them quickly became friends. Mr. Milas had a number of problems to deal with. He had a heavy Lithuanian accent that made it hard…
AUGUST 16, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 7 Though once viewed as slightly out of the mainstream of American thought, the “right-to-die” movement has become widely accepted today. Few would argue with the notion that a competent patient has the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment, even when the medical community collectively believes that the treatment should…
AUGUST 9, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 6 Walter Heine never married and never had children. His closest relative was his sister, Alma Francis. In 1987, after Mr. Heine suffered a stroke, the Minnesota courts appointed a conservator to handle his money. Before his stroke, Mr. Heine had never gotten around to making out a will.…
AUGUST 2, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 5 Bipin Shah worked in New York as a chemical engineer. Along with his wife Kashmira and their two children, Mr. Shah lived in New Jersey. On August 1, 1996, while working in Suffolk County, New York, Mr. Shah suffered a serious head injury, resulting in his hospitalization in…
JULY 26, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 4 Jean Matthies was eighty-one years old when she fell and broke her hip. She had been living alone in her apartment in Union City, New Jersey, and had been quite independent. She did her own shopping, cooking and housecleaning. But with a fractured hip, she could not even…
JULY 19, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 3 Jose C. Martinez lived and died in Belen, New Mexico. Mr. Martinez was the father of ten children, and in 1984 he had signed a will leaving his real estate to two of the children. In 1995, Mr. Martinez signed a document called “Revokation of Last Will and…
JULY 12, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 2 Thomas Mullen and 28 other defendants were charged with telemarketing fraud in New York federal court. At trial, the jury convicted Mullen on two of four counts, but the trial judge decided that there had been insufficient evidence of Mullen’s intentions and set aside the conviction. The government…
JULY 5, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 1 In nearly every state, living wills and health care powers of attorney can effectively declare a patient’s wishes regarding medical treatment and authorize an agent to carry out those wishes. In some states, the two kinds of documents may be combined into a single form, and they may…
JUNE 28, 1999 VOLUME 6, NUMBER 52 Beginning in 1970, the Gary, Indiana public school system was faced with a major problem. Student enrollment was declining rapidly (the number of students was to drop by one third in the next fifteen years), and the school system found itself laying off teachers and administrators. In 1982,…