Preface: Third National Guardianship Summit: Standards of Excellence

Thus, the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law was particularly delighted to have been the successful applicant to hold this Summit. It was a wonderful opportunity for our students—especially but not only those interested in health care or social service issues—to experience firsthand how skilled advocates and scholars wrestle with these difficult questions. The recommendations achieved by the Summit—while surely in some respects representing compromises among values such as paternalism and autonomy, and among practical concerns such as available social resources and competing demands on them—are admirable. They can be expected to be the basis on which improved guardianship practices are built over the next generation.

This is an achievement in which the University of Utah is pleased to have played a small role, and a process in which we hope our students, graduates, and faculty will continue to contribute.