Obama Signs Memorandum Granting Same-Sex Couples Hospital Visitation Rights
I really don’t see how anyone can have a problem with this – yes, I know some will.
President Obama on Thursday signed a memorandum requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have non-family visitors and to grant their partners medical power of attorney.
The president ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation. The memo is scheduled to be made public Friday morning, according to an administration official and another source familiar with the White House decision.
An official said the new rule will affect any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding.
During a time of vulnerability and fear, it’s only right (and humane) that a person have those they love by their bedside.
Tags: Gay Rights, President Obama
I haven’t figured out how having a loved one by your hospital bed will threaten “traditional” marriage, but I’m sure someone will be along to enlighten me.
It threatens traditional dying.
There was a huge fight in the MD legislature last year when they were debating this. Thankfully, the forces of good and fairness won the day.
A1 – lol.
Good decision, Mr. President. Kind of a shame it took until 2010 to happen, though.
“I really don’t see how anyone can have a problem with this”
To answer your question…
“Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the conservative Family Research Council, said his organization doesn’t object to people conferring a healthcare proxy or power of attorney on anyone they wish.
“But in its current political context, President Obama’s memorandum clearly constitutes pandering to a radical special interest group,” he said. “The memorandum undermines the definition of marriage, and furthers a big-government federal takeover of even the smallest details of the nation’s healthcare system.” ”
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-gay-couples-hospitals16-2010apr16,0,7453911.story
Someone needs to prevent Mr. Sprigg from being by the bedside of his beloved when they are sick or dying. Better yet, no one should be allowed by his bedside, when he is sick or dying, and maybe then he will get a better understanding of how “small” this detail is…
Did I misunderstand this, or did Mr.
PrickSprigg refer to gays as a “radical special interest group”? Better watch out, Sir. Who knows, next they might want to vote. What? They can? Somebody get me the Times on the horn! Those people. Always wanting to be treated like … people.I really don’t get this either — is this some sort of grandstanding move? ANYONE can be appointed your medical power of attorney–but in some states it’s mandated it can’t be someone who stands to benefit from your demise. And as far as visitation rights–can’t say i’ve really ever seen this fine-lined as to card-carrying relative/same sex /significant other—but I will throw all your arses out, when you start acting up, using the patient’s bathroom, ordering take-out, and make a bed UNDER the patient bed for your nap. This has never been about visitors w/ hospitals. It’s been about the behavior of your visitors while there–whether kid, relative, pet, significant other, same sex partner, hairdresser, or bill collector. But if you think this is a win–then Pres. Obama has certainly scored, w/ very little political sweat on his part. Sorry gang, I see thru this–because I saw visitors everyday.
The change was necessary because sometimes legal documents are respected.
My only issue with this is that it is yet one more example of “stroke of the pen” legislating via executive order. This should be done by statute, or not at all.
But if Obama is going to do this, can we also get an addition to this executive order that bans my crazy fundy cousin and her husband from the hospital room of her lesbian sister at the same time it gets her partner in?
For a long time the hospital in Lewes’s policy has been “a relative is anyone you say it is”
UI-some people are just mean. And I’ll guarantee you, some blood relative was crowing about this–as the hospital was scurrying to see what the fury was all about. No doubt there is more to the story–because if those children, were her adopted children…they would have been bedside….period. And the hospital knows that.
Yes, I think the issue is that laws do vary state-to-state and this executive order is to enforce the right for you to have the hospital visitors you choose.
Will someone please bring me across state lines for treatment if I ever get sick in Florida? Between feeding tubes, and visitation rights, I’m afraid they might miss the bigger picture. Thank you–and you will be reimbursed privately–I won’t make you wait for my insurer.
Moosey’s response here is just another example of his vicious wish for the repeal of all laws against discrimination by private businesses, including hospitals. In Moosey’s fantasy Libertarian world, private hospitals would be allowed to let you die on the street if they didn’t like your skin color, sexual orientation, or anything else.
No, A1, that is not my position, but you are free to keep lying that it is. When i have discussed such matters, I’ve specifically stated that emergency medical treatment (and that includes treatment in any situation where failure to provide such treatment would be life-threatening) would obviously have to be required by law.
And how does my comment (insisting that the legislative process be followed rather than law-making-by-presidential-decree) constitute a call for repeal of anti-discrimination law? I simply argued that law should be made pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution. What’s more, I spoke favorably of the goal of the president’s goal, if not his method.
In short, A1, you fail in both reading comprehension and truth-telling.
Hey Moosey, clearly you believe that private businesses, including hospitals and ambulances, should have the “right to discriminate” for whatever reason that they want. Whether or not a condition is “life threatening” at a given time is a matter of medical opinion.
Your criticism of Obama for this executive order is just a mask for the real reason of your distaste. If it were an executive order banning abortion counseling a la Bush, you wouldn’t utter a peep.
BTW, why did you change from “Rhymes With Right” to “A. Nony Moose”?