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Hawaii’s World
OUR state Legislature this year proved politics is really screwy. It OK'd medical marijuana with questionable benefits yet rejected fluoridation with immensely well-established benefits for the teeth of our children. Legislature should
pass benefits for
gay partnersLegislators also pretty successfully ducked two compassionate issues I hope will be back before them next year:
Domestic partnerships, also called civil unions.
My hope and hunch is that both of these issues will be less avoidable next year -- and ought to get some attention in this year's elections.
Hawaii, after all, has a tradition of being out in front with compassionate programs. We have the most extensive health coverage in America, and primarily private. We were the first state, in 1970, to legalize abortion -- which now is strongly suggested as a factor in crime reduction. I hope our good record can continue and believe it may.
We did the right thing in 1998 by using a public referendum to overwhelmingly turn down same-sex marriage because of the offense it gives to traditional male-female marriage.
But many of us who supported the 1998 outcome now also recognize an obligation to afford gays truly committed to each other the right to the more acceptable substitute of civil unions (as Vermont calls them in legalizing them this year). They are the same as what we have called domestic partnerships. Maybe civil union is preferable.
Vermont has said OK, as of July 1, to the extension to gay couples of some 300 benefits already extended to married couples.
These include inheritance rights, similar property holding rights, family leave to care for a sick person, health-care rights including hospital visitation and notification, comparable standing for adoption and spouse abuse protection, overall legal standing comparable to married couples.
They also include divorce through the family court after six months of residence. While doing this, the Vermont legislature also reserved the term "marriage" to male-female unions.
The Vermont legislature acted only after the state Supreme Court took a second look at the state's 1777 constitution and decided that the state is barred from conferring benefits on one class of citizens -- in this case, married couples -- that are denied to others.
It was our Hawaii Supreme Court's near-legalization of same-sex marriage that prompted our 1998 referendum, so there should be no problem on that front with a civil union law.
PHYSICIAN-assisted death so far is legal in only one state, Oregon. It is sparingly used there for less than 1 percent of all deaths.
A Hawaii panel appointed by Governor Cayetano in 1998 recommended a somewhat broader application here. It would reach beyond terminal cases to those with intolerable suffering that can be neither cured nor palliated.
Congress is aiming to stifle Oregon's program by denying use of the necessary drugs. This most likely will be stopped by a veto from President Clinton and, if not, might be held unconstitutional.
The issue may figure in this year's presidential election. It also is before the voters of Maine.
Governor Cayetano has indicated he will be more active on its behalf next year. It deserves our compassionate attention if only to be a "security blanket" for sufferers who may never invoke it.
Same-sex marriage:
Past articles
A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.