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You make some good rational points..and that is what I am asking for...rationality....to run around and tell seniors, 'Run for your lives, the docs are out to get you', is ludicrous on its face, and flies in the face of reality...and yet, I have seen this very sentiment bandied about..I have seen sentiments posted on FR, telling people to keep their senior parents out of Florida, because going down to Florida will mean their ultimate demise at the hands of evil doctors...what kind of rationality is that?

I have seen sentiments posted on FR, telling people to keep their senior parents out of Florida, because going down to Florida will mean their ultimate demise at the hands of evil doctors...what kind of rationality is that?

I think the bigger concern with Florida was not with doctors, but with hospices. Although there are some good hospices that will work to help dying people get the most out of the time they have left, there are some bad ones which do nothing to offer their patients any quality of life except a morphine drip.

Many of the moral and legal issues involved with elderly and their children are complicated and have no really good answers. As an elderly person becomes incapable of managing his or her own affairs, sometimes it's good for their children to take over. If their children are good and honest people, such an arrangement can work out to everyone's benefit. On the other hand, if the children are not good and honest people, such control would allow them to rob and kill their parents.

Some states require the appointment of independent guardians ad litem for such matters. In theory, such independent people will be able to evaluate what's best for the ward without any conflict of interest. Unfortunately, becaue guardians have no personal stake in their decisions, there is often little motivation for them to investigate dilligently. Further, even a dilligent guardian ad litem may have a hard time discovering things a guardian doesn't want him to know about. Consequently, even when guardians ad litem are appointed, it's difficult for them to really do much good.