Many seriously ill hospital patients are incapable of making health care decisions on their own behalf because such factors as trauma, disease, pain, medication or old age interfere, at least temporarily, with their ability to approve or disapprove a course of treatment. Traditionally, the law has given authority to the patient's spouse, next-of-kin, legal guardian, or doctor to approve or disapprove a course of treatment, but these solutions pose the risk that the patient's own wishes will be ignored. Forty-seven percent of patients want their partners or friends to act as substitute decisionmakers if they become incompetent, 32 percent want family members, and 14 percent want their physicians. Patients whose parents were only somewhat or not at all accepting of their homosexuality want their partners or friends to be decisionmakers more often than patients whose parents were more accepting. Recent studies indicate that the suicide rate for persons with AIDS is significant. Clients aware of the privilege of confidentiality may see the attorney as one of the few persons with whom both a safe and an objective discussion can be held regarding this issue.