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Post by Tiger on Nov 1, 2009 14:37:43 GMT -5
I'm doing same-sex marriage as the topic for my research paper, and in the process of poring over various benefits of legalizing it, I've come across several stories in which a person was not allowed to visit their lover because they were not legally recognized as a family.
Why in the nine hells do hospitals ever refuse to allow visitors to see a patient?
This isn't just a gay rights issue - why is visitation limited to legal family only, as if people who have similar DNA are somehow automatically more important than the other people who love and care about you? Many people have family members they would feel very happy never seeing again, while at the same time having friends that they love more than anyone they're tied to by "blood".
This policy strikes me as idiotic and boils my blood just a little bit.
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Post by peanutfan on Nov 1, 2009 14:45:53 GMT -5
I think the theory is that patients need to get as much rest as possible, so hospitals only allow visitors that have some recognized legal ties or are authorized by the family in the case of patients who are unconscious/comatose.
The practice, as you said, is that gay partners often get deliberately excluded by bigoted families that the patient probably wouldn't want to see if they were in a legal position to protest anyway (in the case of coma patients, at least).
Yeah, it's all kinds of fucked up.
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Post by erictheblue on Nov 3, 2009 11:53:04 GMT -5
I agree with Tiger, and not just on the gay rights issue. I moved to FL a few months ago for school. My family is all about 15 hours or more north of here. If I ended up in the hospital for more than a few days, my parents would probably come down. But if it was shorter term, or until they got here, I'd be on my own. Not even my fiancee, who lives with me, could come in because we are not legally married. (It's possible a hospital would let her in given our relationship, but they would not have to. Even if I was unconscious, she could show proof of our relationship because we wear matching rings.)
Which reminds me... I need to get a medical power of attorney for her...
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