Gay Rights One Baby-Step at a Time: Protecting Hospital Visitation Rights for Same-Sex Partners While the Lack of Surrogacy Rights Lingers Comment on “Ethical Challenges in End-of-Life Care for GLBTI Individuals” by Colleen Cartwright

• Published in: Journal of bioethical inquiry Vol. 9; no. 3; pp. 361 - 363
• Main Author: Hernandez, Jaime O.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.09.2012
• Subjects: Case Studies; Ethics; Female; Homosexuality; Homosexuality, Female; Hospitals; Humans; Law; Medical Law; Medical service; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Obama, Barack; Presidents; Sexual orientation; Terminal Care - legislation & jurisprudence; Theory of Medicine/Bioethics; Queer health; Advance directives; Surrogate decision-making; End of life; Hospital visitation rights; Bioethics and the law
• ISSN: 1176-7529; 1872-4353; 1872-4353
• DOI: 10.1007/s11673-012-9388-5

Recognizing that GLBTI individuals are often barred from visiting their partners in hospitals or from acting as health care surrogates for incapacitated partners, President Obama directed the Department of Health and Human Services to address these issues. In response, the department amended its rules to prohibit hospitals from restricting, limiting, or denying visitation privileges on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. But the changes do not affect the designation of a health care surrogate, a matter largely governed by state law. Therefore, subject to state law, same-sex partners can still be legally barred from making health care decisions for their incapacitated partners, and it remains essential that they execute advance directives and appoint one another as their health care proxies.