[Advance Directives - Not a Lot of Margin for Error - The Surgeon's View of a Complex Medical-Legal Topic]

Since September 1st, 2009, the most recent version of the German "Betreuungsrechtsänderungsgesetz" has been validated by the legislators. It precisely sets out how physicians and nursing staff have to deal with a written declaration of a patient's will. This new law focuses in a special way on advance directives, describes the precise rules for the authors of an advance directive and shows both its sphere of action and its limitations. This article aims to give an overview on the legal scope of advance directives, and to illustrate potential limitations and conflicts. Furthermore, it shows the commitments and rights of the medical team against the background of an existing advance directive.