Jul 04, 2003  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

The domestic partner of someone incapacitated due to a medical condition now has the same legal authority as a married spouse to make medical decisions for that partner under a D.C. law that took effect June 21.

The new law, the Health-Care Decisions Act of 2003, is “a modest but potentially useful step toward extending full civil equality to same-sex relationships,” officials at the D.C. Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance said in a statement.

Gay activists hailed the measure as an important addition to the city’s domestic partners law, which became operative last year after Congress lifted a 10-year hold on that legislation.

The domestic partners law, known officially as the D.C. Health Care Benefits Expansion Act, allows same-sex and opposite-sex domestic partners to register their relationships with the city. It also allows partners of D.C. government employees to receive health insurance benefits, and requires hospitals and other health care institutions, such as nursing homes, to offer visitation rights to domestic partners.

The Health-Care Decisions Act requires hospitals, other health care institutions and health care providers to follow the wishes of the domestic partner or a “close friend” of an incapacitated person in approving or disapproving medical treatment. The law becomes operational only if the incapacitated person did not assign his or her care to someone else under a legal document known as a durable power of attorney.

It defines a close friend as “any adult who has exhibited significant care and concern for the patient, and has maintained regular contact with the patient so as to be familiar with his or her activities, health, and religious and moral beliefs.”

A domestic partner is defined as “any adult who has registered as a domestic partner” under the city’s domestic partners law. The domestic partners law allows partners to register their relationships during business hours at D.C. Office of Vital Records, located at 825 North Capitol Street, NE.

The Health Care Decisions Act also recognizes for legal purposes “any adult who has registered as a domestic partner in a substantially equivalent program” operated by another state or jurisdiction. Gay activists persuaded the D.C. Council to add this provision to the bill to accommodate the large numbers of out of town visitors and tourists who flock to D.C. each year. In addition, the law recognizes D.C. residents who may not have registered as domestic partners but who are “living with, but not married to, another adult person in a committed, intimate relationship.”

trong>Congress took no action
The D.C. Council passed the Health Care Decisions Act earlier this year, and Mayor Anthony Williams signed the measure, sending it to Congress for a required 30-day review period. No members of Congress took steps to block the legislation, allowing it to become law on June 21.

D.C. Council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), the chief author of the legislation, said members of the medical staff at George Washington University Hospital alerted her and her Council colleagues to the need for the new law. G.W. hospital officials pointed to a case where the unmarried partner of a patient who was in a coma had no legal authority to make any medical decisions on the partner’s behalf. Hospital officials noted that all medical decisions were placed in the hands of distant relatives, even though the partner and the patient had been a couple for many years.

All 12 of Patterson’s Council colleagues signed on as co-introducers or co-sponsors of the legislation, including gay Council members David Catania (R-At-Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1).

“In an ideal world, committed same-sex partners could be legally married, or at least would be executing durable power of attorney documents for each other,” said Craig Howell, a former GLAA president who testified in favor of the legislation before the D.C. Council. “But since no state yet recognizes same-sex marriages, and since not all domestic partners are sophisticated enough to execute power of attorney documents, this reform should prove meaningful and productive.”

trong>MORE INFO
Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, DC
P.O. Box 75265
Washington, DC 20013
202-667-5139
www.glaa.org

DC Office of Vital Records
825 North Capitol Street NE
1st Floor, Room 1312
Washington, DC 20002
202-442-9009
http://doh.dc.gov