Morganni Wrote:I'm actually a bit boggled at how much of an issue visitation rights seem to be. One would think a person could just say "Mr. X can visit me if I'm in the hospital. So can Mr. Y. And Miss Z too, while I'm at it," have this written down somewhere, and then not have to freaking deal with it until they wanted to change the list, and you certainly wouldn't have to explain why these people should be allowed visitation, because it's no one's damn business but yours. But somehow, it seems to end up being all sorts of people's business except the person who's actually in the hospital.You're assuming the patient is able to state his wishes. If a member of my family ends up in an accident and lands in the hospital in a coma, I don't want to be told "You aren't allowed to visit" just because I'm not that family member's spouse or parent - I want to sit beside my loved one and offer all the moral support I can.
That's part of why it's everyone else's business. Who automatically gets on the "visit" list when the patient can't write it?
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Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012