Advance healthcare directives - considerations from an Irish perspective

This article addresses, in an Irish context, some of the complexities associated with advance planning documents which have been discussed more broadly by Ruck Keene. While the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 is an important step forward in Irish law, there remain significant areas of uncertainty. In this regard, the article considers issues around the creation of advance planning documents and difficulties which may arise when they are intended to be activated and compares some of those difficulties with the law in England and Wales.