This column first appeared in the San Antonio Express News and other Hearst Newspapers on October 1, 2018. Dear Mr. Premack: Can a Durable Power of Attorney and a Medical Power of Attorney be amended to change the alternate agent without a new document being issued? – RLD A Durable Power of Attorney is legally intended to delegate to an Agent authority to assist with the Principal’s financial and business matters. A Medical Power of Attorney, likewise, delegates to an Agent a

Catholic health care systems have been aggressively expanding in the US. It is estimated that one-sixth of the hospital beds available in th

This column first appeared in the San Antonio Express-News on June 8, 2018. Dear Mr. Premack: I am agent under my father’s Medical Power of Attorney. He has Alzheimer’s and now, ironically, has terminal cancer. The doctors have been cooperative with implementing DNR orders while he has been in the hospital, but things get inconsistent about life support when he’s moved back to the memory care facility. Is there a way for me to use the Medical Power of Attorney to get all of t

This column first appeared in the San Antonio Express News on October 12, 2015. Dear Mr. Premack: My father and I have been discussing his illness. He has been diagnosed with cancer; the progress will be slow but unstoppable. He is 90, does not want to be put on artificial life support, and wishes that he could (when the time gets nearer) end his own life in a physician assisted suicide. It is possible and legal in Texas for his wishes to be carried out? – RS In America, an a

The 76th Legislature closed its regular session on May 31, 1999. It considered hundreds of proposals, and voted to make many of them into law. Several important bills affecting Seniors were passed, including the “Advance Directives Act.” Governor Bush vetoed a similar bill that was passed by the 75th Legislature in 1997. According to the Governor’s office, he vetoed the 1997 bill because it contained “several provisions that would permit a physician to deny life-sustaining pr

Senior citizens, the largest consumers of medical care and the fastest growing segment in our population, bear a high risk of incapacity from a wide range of medical causes. A 1982 study established that approximately 17 out of 100 people over age 80 suffer significant loss of physical or mental abilities. The idea of delegating health care decision-making may be new to you. Discuss the matter with your family doctor and seek expert legal advice, because plans must be made wh