'Ageism' and right to die litigation

This study examines 88 reported judicial decisions involving adult patients and decisions about life-prolonging medical treatments. The patient's age by itself does not appear to be a factor influencing findings of mental competency or incompetency or findings of the appropriateness or inappropriateness of abating life-prolonging medical treatments. Neither can an explicit ageist bias be extracted from an analysis of the text of judicial decisions in this arena. Various potential explanations for the lack of apparent ageist bias are suggested.