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| The recent fight over whether Terri Schiavo should have her feeding tube removed prompted leaders of First Metropolitan Community Church of Atlanta to host a forum informing gays how they can make their end-of-life wishes known. (Photo by AP) |
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Experts recommend the following documents for gay and lesbian couples in Georgia who wish to designate each other to make decisions on their behalf in emergency medical situations. Most of the forms are available at hospitals and online, and are free to complete.
Living will: Allows you to outline which treatments you would, or would not, like to receive if you enter a terminal or vegetative state.
Durable power of attorney for health care: Allows you to designate an agent who is empowered to make medical decisions on your behalf, either in end-of-life situations, or during general health care matters.
Do not resuscitate: Allows you to indicate your desire not to receive CPR or other medical procedures that would restore your breathing during an end-of-life scenario.
Financial power of attorney: Allows you to appoint an agent who can make financial decisions if you become incapacitated. The agent can use your assets to pay for medical care if necessary, or can maintain your financial obligations such as house and auto payments while you are unable to do so.
Advance Directives Forum
May 1, 1 p.m.
First Metropolitan Community Church of Atlanta
1379 Tullie Road
404-325-4143
www.firstmcc.com
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HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: RYAN LEE
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Gay men and lesbians in committed relationships become “legal strangers” if one partner suffers a life-threatening illness or injury, unless they have advance directives, a set of legal precautions that entitles them to make medical decisions for each other.
Unlike the recent Terri Schiavo drama, gay couples would have no legal authority to carry out their partner’s end-of-life wishes without an advance directive, particularly if the disabled person’s family objected to the decision. In the Schiavo case, the incapacitated woman’s parents waged an ultimately unsuccessful court battle to prevent her husband from removing her feeding tube.
“Even though Terri Schiavo didn’t have an advance directive, Florida recognized that in this situation it was the spouse’s decision to make,” said Jim Outman, an Atlanta lawyer who specializes in estate planning and other family issues.
“In the case of gay and lesbian couples, there’s even a greater need for having an advance directive because under the law in Georgia and almost everywhere else, you are a legal stranger to your partner,” he added.
“Once the mother shows up, or father shows up, or the brothers and sister show up, you’re the lowest person on the totem pole,” Outman said.
Even gays whose families are accepting of their relationships should not underestimate the importance of having advance directives, Outman said.
“They may be openly tolerant of this relationship, but when their son or daughter is dying, lying in some hospital, you may be seen as part of the problem, particularly if it was a car accident and you were driving, or something like that,” Outman said.
Schiavo’s ordeal inspired leaders at the First Metropolitan Community Church of Atlanta to hold a May 1 forum to educate gays and lesbians about the legal documents they would need if they were in a situation similar to Schiavo’s.
“This event is not saying you should or shouldn’t be on life support, this is saying that this is how you can make your wishes known and empower people to make medical decisions for you if necessary,” said Rev. Chip Carson, a pastor at First MCC who is organizing the forum.
“Especially in the LGBT [community] — where we have a much higher incidence of extended family — the person who will be assigned to make decisions for you will most likely not be the person you want to make those decisions, and folks need to be made aware of that,” Carson said.
The First MCC event is free and open to the public. Carson said he expects between 100 and 200 people to attend.
Talking about how you want to die is uncomfortable for many, but necessary, Outman said.
“If one gets one’s house in order, it actually removes some of the tension we have about end-of-life matters,” he said.
The documents needed to outline your wishes during a medical emergency have existed in Georgia since the mid-1980s, arriving at a time just before they would become particularly important for some gay couples, Carson remembered.
“Especially in the early days of HIV, it came up a lot of times where one partner would be ill, and his partner could not make decisions for him,” Carson said.
“And so it turned out the families made the decision — even if they had been estranged for years — sometimes with the partner not even being able to visit the ill partner in the hospital,” he added.
Legal experts recommend four documents for people who want to designate someone to make medical decisions for them if they are unable to do so.
A durable power of attorney for health care is a “robust document” that allows you to grant someone broad access to your medical records and authority over medical decisions, Outman said.
The document is not restricted to dealing with end-of-life matters, but instead “it’s actually allowing someone to participate as an agent for general healthcare issues as well,” he said.
Should the patient lose consciousness, the agent will still be empowered to make medical decisions, Outman said.
A living will allows you to specifically outline your medical wishes if you enter a terminal or vegetative state. The document can have general instructions such as to exhaust all treatment options before deciding to end the patient’s life, or can include specific instructions about which treatments are compatible with the patient’s morals and values, Outman said.
A living will that is more specific may actually be easier “to poke holes in” during a legal challenge because the scenario predicted in ...
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