Quote:
|
Originally Posted by LadyShea
That's not what I said, at all. I have never once stated anything against marriage in and of itself. Dammit, I am getting frustrated here too. I want marriage to exist, I just want the government not to discriminate based on it.
My hypothetical is that everyone chooses and legally designates one person to be their legal next of kin (for lack of a better term) to which all rights currently conveyed only to married people, are to be extended. The nature of the relationship between these two people would be irrelevant. If two widows want to pool resources and name each other "legal next of kin" then that would be fine, if roommmates want to name each other, fine. Gay couples, relatives. It shouldn't matter if you are fucking the person you want to be your desingee with regards to such matters.
If someone dies without a will, in my hypothetical world, not in the current world, then everything should go to whomever they designated as their legal next of kin. Under many circumstances that would, indeed, be a spouse, but my way does not discriminate against non-marrieds.
|
Sorry, maybe my point wasn't clear. It just seems to me that a lot of people would fail to legally declare this next of kin, in the same way that a lot of people fail to make a will. Why shouldn't there be a legal recognition of the actual social and economic relationships people enter into even when they haven't created a formal document specifying them?
Take the case of someone who was in a relationship and declared their partner as next of kin, but then later fell out with that person and entered a relationship with someone else (these are either formal marriage or common-law relationships)... but this person failed to update who their legal next-of-kin was before dying. Does the current spouse lose all rights to inherit? If the inheritance was contested in a court, what should the outcome be?