As the Supreme Court considers the same-sex marriage cases in Hollingsworth and Windsor, the arrest of Roger Gorley could serve as an answer to justices like Chief Justice John Roberts who asked pointedly what the rush was for an answer on the issue. Gorley was arrested at the Research Medical Center in Kansas City after he refused to leave the side of his partner. While he had power of attorney and the right to make medical decisions, family members did not want him in the room. Because he was not viewed as a “spouse” and therefore a family member, he was told to leave.
Gorley is now the subject of a restraining order to prevent further visitation.
Gorley said the nurse refused to confirm the couple’s shared power of attorney and medical decision form.
“She didn’t even bother to look it up, to check in to it,” the Lee’s Summit resident recalled.
The hospital insists “when anyone becomes disruptive to providing the necessary patient care, we involve our security team to help calm the situation and to protect our patients and staff. If the situation continues to escalate, we have no choice but to request police assistance.”
I do not know how Gorley acted, but the confrontation occurred after he was told to leave. If they were recognized as spouses, such an order would be highly unlikely. Clearly, the hospital can expel anyone who is causing a disruption, including all family members. The absence of marital status however places people like Gorley at a disadvantage in disagreements with other family members over visitation.
Source: Rawstory
sorry for the typos
What we are talking about here is the critical thing that the medical industry needs before it can do ANYTHING to you, which is YOUR CONSENT.
The medical industry can not have it both ways: they can’t argue that you gave consent to be treated as if your consent isn’t required. The power of attorney is a pre-event arrangement indicating how and when you want; the issue of consent dealt with when the powers that be determine that you are unable to decide whether to give your consent.
The medical industry–and Research Medical can’t argue both the following, which is what they are doing:
A. They argue that you can chose their hospital for avail yourself of their services–then, by their own reasoning, you are capable of choosing you which services you want, how and when those services are delivered, and what support system you want in place to facilitate your chosen treatment plan. Thus, your previously created power of attorney in your same-sex spouse also is a choice of yours that applies and has power.
B. They argue that you are availing yourself of their services because you in the thralls of a medical emergency which has so severely impacted your ability to chose that THEY need to determine your treatment plan without your consent, in which case, again, your previously created power of attorney ALSO applies.
Does anyone here not see that we are avoiding a very serious underlying question here: the provision of hospital services is a commodity which the consumer “chooses”, and, ergo, has complete control over…or does he? Once you decide to engage the services of some sort of medical provider, you do NOT relinquish control of your life to them from that point forward.
If we let this discussion continue–of the points being bandied about here, we are letting a context get established that is very scary. Like with judges and prosecutors that have absolute immunity (from being held accountable for their misdeeds), and like with cops that see us all as terrorists instead of neighbors, letting the medical industry “assume” so much control over us is bad, very bad: we have a right to have our chosen support system by our side when we chose to undergo medical treatment, and the medical professional has an obligation to facilitate our choices.