Capacity issues related to the health care proxy.

The concept of capacity, its ethical mandates, and a rationale for the assessment of capacity to execute a health care proxy was discussed. Special New York State regulations, relevant to the execution of a health care proxy by persons who have mental retardation, were reviewed, discussed, and compared with regulations in some other jurisdictions. Technical information about a health care proxy and the appropriate form for a simple health care proxy were described. A standard for psychologists and physicians to use in assessing the capacity of a person with cognitive impairments to execute a health care proxy is presented.