Who Will Make the Decisions for Your Parents?

In families with several children there always seems to be one responsible one. New research finds that daughters are most often making decisions for their elderly parents when they're in the hospital.

Researchers say elderly hospital patients are frequently too impaired to make their own medical decisions, and often need a surrogate decision maker. They found that daughters step in as that decision maker in almost 60-percent of those cases.

Researchers say this is an issue since most hospitals are set up to function with the patient as the decision maker, not the family. Researchers say the best advice they have is to talk with an elderly parent about what kinds of care they would want and who they would want making decisions for them if they became incapacitated.

[NBC News]