Decision by Default: End of Life Care Decisions

The project explores decision making in the context of end-of-life (EOL) care choices
among adults with few social and economic resources. Although most American adults believe
that planning for EOL is important, only about 30% report making formal EOL plans such as
Advance Directives, wills, trusts, or any other formal documentation. Using qualitative
methodology, 25, participants who were all living at the same long term care facility, were
interviewed during two different waves of data collection. The transcribed interviews were
analyzed using thematic analysis and guided by Normative Rhetorical Theory framework.
Remarkable conclusions were that without social and economic resources, participants reported
they did not make choices about EOL and care, but rather their decisions were made by default.