Table 1.

Definitions of Decisional Capacities Important in Legally Competent Decision Making

Understanding	The ability to comprehend diagnostic and treatment related information, and to demonstrate that comprehension; involves ability to attend, encode, store, and retrieve newly presented words and phrases
Appreciation	The ability to determine the significance of treatment information relative to one’s own situation, focusing on beliefs about the actual presence of the diagnosis and the possibility that treatment would be beneficial; involves insight, judgment, and foresight
Reasoning	The process of comparing alternatives in light of consequences, through integrating, analyzing, and manipulating information; involves the ability to provide rational reasons for a treatment decision, to manipulate information rationally, to generate consequences of treatments for one’s life, to compare those consequences in light of one’s values
Expressing A Choice	This ability to communicate a decision about treatment, applying to individuals who cannot or will not express a choice, or who are ambivalent