The Terri Schaivo Case: Would it be different if Terri was a lesbian?

[Modem Butterfly]

If Terri Schiavo was a lesbian, how would this case be different?

[Bunny]

1. Her lover would not have legal standing to carry out her wishes.

Her parents would.

[Modem Butterfly]

3. If her partner had a durable power of attorney she could

But I wonder how the arguments would be different? I wonder if the state would have intervened? Would the Freakers and hate-radio be so all over this case if Terri were married to Michelle instead of Michael?

[Bunny]

4. In theory, yes. But in the face of strong opposition from her

parents, do you think a POA would be honored? I have my doubts.

[Modem Butterfly]

5. Actually, a POA is usually held as binding

I think the parents would have sued on different grounds though. And certainly Terri's wife Michelle would never have won a jury award for her care and rehabilitation.

[sui generis]

6. well it used to be bulletproof but now, it depends

which state you're in. It's a legal contract that approximates or seeks to offer the benefit of marriage, and therefore probably not, in Oklahoma, Nebraska, and my favorite slack-jawed one-nutted deliverance blight on the planet, Virginia.

I just had minor surgery last week in Texas and had to fill out an MPA for my SO; but I did ask and it is completely binding here.

Alas for those beneficiaries of my good will, I survived being de-moled.

[Modem Butterfly]

7. Do you think the right-wingers would have taken up her parents cause?

I'm inclined to think that they would either be silent or, in fact, even more rabid than they are currently.

[Lex]

2. Her domestic partner in most states would have NO right *NONE*

to legally make any decisions about her healthcare, or even be in on consultations with doctors about her healthcare in general, much less on a decision about unhooking her from machines.

Even if she and her partner had been living together as a couple for 50 years.

Living parents or siblings would trump her partner's participation in every legal way.

[murray hill farm]

8. If she had completed a living will..prior to her comma..

then her wishes would have been honored...and she would not have been kept on life support. I think that, for us..who are not in a comma, is the important thing to remember here. So...if you dont have one, now might be a good time to act on it.

[Modem Butterfly]

10. She's not in a coma

She's in a persistant vegetative state. In other words, a vegetable.

[murray hill farm]

13. OK..same diff...when it comes to having a living will!

I still think we all could avoid this for our families, if we had one...i have one...and it is a relief just to know that it exists. This way, i know...what is happening to Terri...will not happen to me...what a horrid thing she has had to endure...and especially if she has any awareness of it at all...and for so long.

[Lex]

14. Of course. But legal spouses get the right WITHOUT any documents

and that is what the original post was referring to, I think.

[Padraig18]

9. Tony has my durable health-care P.O.A.

Our attorney assures us that in IL, at least, it is ironclad legal.

[Modem Butterfly]

11. My partner and I have durable POAs on each other

But it's still a concern.

[tishaLA]

12. But Randall Terry and his henchmen

who are hired as spokespeople for the Schindlers would have punctured that in a nano-second, insisted it was special rights and that the parents SHOULD have POA, and found a symapthetic RW judge--or series of judges--to agree with them.

[Lex]

15. I think the POINT IS--no other legal documents are necessary for married

folks.

The marriage itself confers lots and lots of these rights between husband and wives.

Sure, gay couples can go pay money for Powers of Attorney and other documents, and they should, but is precisely because they can't get married that these rights don't confer automatically.

[Modem Butterfly]

16. Not according to Jeb Bush and the Republicans

What's so insidious about this case is the fact that the Rethugs want to play "Big Brother Knows Best" in the one situation they've always claimed is superior to all else, the relationship between husband and wife.