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.