All domestic partners need to read this!

[alwynsw]

Get an Advance Healthcare Directive and complete it today. This simple document is recognized in all states and allows you to decide who handles your health care decisions if you are unable to make your wishes known.

Who knows you and your wishes better than your partner? Certainly not your parents or siblings that you haven't lived with since reaching adulthood. This document allows you to appoint your own guardian (healthcare decision maker) and only becomes effective if:

1) You are unable to communicate your wishes.

2) A legal copy is in the hands of the health care provider.

It can certainly avoid issues 3 of my friends faced when AIDS took their partners. All three were barred from the hospital by family members. One was even barred from the funeral. (You can fix the funeral thing with a Last Will and Testament.)

Follow this link for free legal copies in your state, Canada, and D.C.

http://www.partnershipforcaring.org/Advance/