(December 3, 2010 at 9:07 pm)lrh9 Wrote: But let's use a hypothetical to discuss this. Say that you are in an accident and left in a coma. You are taken to a private hospital. One of their rules is that only one person may see someone in the hospital at a time, and each person is allowed to have an hour. Say that your wounds are fatal. You are going to die within the next hour. Say that I come to the hospital to visit you, and I arrive before your hypothetical partner whom you love very much. How would your system work to ensure that your partner got to spend your last hour alive with you without giving your partner or your status as a couple any preferential legal treatment over me? Or would you be such a bastard as to not give a damn who was in that room?If you honestly think this is a good hypothetical, then you obviously aren't thinking straight. Marriage doesn't lose all meaning if the government simply steps aside. The government doesn't decree that a husband has first right to be by his wife on her deathbed, or vice versa. That decision is made by the hospitals. The same decision can be made by the hospitals under my definition of marriage.
As far as I am aware, hospitals do not challenge husbands or wives to prove they are the spouse of the person they are wanting to see. The same applies here.
