Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body.

—Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo

The movement toward greater patient participation in health care that began in the 1960s and 1970s focused increasing attention on the desire for control over nearly all aspects of medical care, including critical care. Dramatic medical and technological advances further underscored the importance of planning ahead for end-of-life care. Baby boomers (the generation of people born between 1946 and 1964), on the threshold of aging and faced with caring for elderly parents, have become increasingly aware of the need to make provisions for their own future medical treatment. Some hope that executing advance directives will help protect their rights to self-determination (the right to make one's own medical decisions, including the right to accept or refuse treatments).

A Brief History of Advance Directives