Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Re “Obama
Alters Hospital Rules for Gay Rights” (front page, April 16):

President
Obama is to be commended for mandating that hospitals grant visiting
rights to same-sex partners. Because same-sex relationships still enjoy
no nationwide legal recognition, the challenge will now be for domestic
partners to identify themselves in a manner that hospital staff can
recognize unequivocally and will be required to honor.

Hospitals
should be required to have patients identify their domestic partners on
their admission forms, and doctors should include this information in
patients’ medical records. Gay and lesbian people should also register
as domestic partners in the jurisdictions that provide such status, and
carry evidence of their registration when they travel.

I also have
my clients execute an affidavit stating the facts that establish their
relationships and specifically expressing their wish for their partners
to have hospital visiting rights.

Ron L. Meyers
New York, April 16, 2010
The writer is an
estate-planning lawyer.

Note from KBJ: I support the letter writer's proposal for visiting rights. Note that there are many things that can and should be done for homosexual couples that do not require legal marriage.