 Myra Gerson Gilfix is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate
of Stanford University. She continued at Stanford
Law School, where she won a Hilmer Oehlmann Award
for excellence in legal research and writing. She
is a founding member and a Fellow of the National
Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA). She has
special expertise in, and has authored numerous
articles on patients' rights issues, including the
right to informed consent, the right to refuse
treatment, and decision-making for persistently
vegetative adults. Publications in which her work
has appeared include the American Journal of
Law and Medicine, Head Trauma Quarterly,
and California Lawyer.Ms. Gilfix has
focused her professional career on topical issues
in health law. She was co-counsel for the
petitioning conservator in Conservatorship of
Drabick, California's seminal case establishing
the rights of incapacitated individuals to have
critical decisions regarding life-sustaining
medical treatments made as they would wish and in
their best interests. She co-authored the amicus
curiae brief on behalf of NAELA in support of the
petitioners in Cruzan v. Harmon, the pivotal
"right to die" case decided by the U.S. Supreme
Court. She has worked with health care providers
and served on various boards of directors of
health care facilities. She has given
presentations on health care decision-making to a
wide variety of audiences, including lawyers,
physicians, medical students, other professionals,
and the general public.
Among her many community activities is her role as
President of Parents for Social, Emotional, and
Academic Learning. While she consults with the
other attorneys at Gilfix and La Poll Associates,
she is currently not seeing clients.
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