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 LLP, she is currently not seeing clients.
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