About: Mandated choice

Mandated choice or mandatory choice is an approach to public policy questions in which people are required by law to state in advance whether or not they are willing to engage in a particular action. The approach contrasts with "opt-in" and "opt-out" ("presumed consent") models of policy formation. The approach has most frequently been applied to cadaveric organ donation, but has increasingly been considered for advance directives as well. One bioethicist, in advocating for a mandatory choice model for living wills, argues that "while all Americans should have a right to decide how they want their lives to end, it does not follow that they should be able to avoid confronting such a choice."