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VETOES
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S.B. 796
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While Senate Bill 796 has the noble goals of ensuring that couples have access to
important health-related decisions - compassionate goals that I embrace - the
mechanism it uses, the creation a new term of life partner, will open the door to
undermine the sanctity of traditional marriage. Rather, a central registry of advance
directives and related legal documents, maintained by the Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene and accessible to health care providers with proper identity
protections for individuals and couples, I believe, would better address the problems
Senate Bill 796 seeks to resolve. I look forward to working with the General Assembly
to find a compromise that provides assistance for those in need while respecting the
uniqueness of traditional marriage under Maryland law. For the above stated
reasons, I have vetoed Senate Bill 796.
Very truly yours,
Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.
Governor
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Senate Bill No. 796
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AN ACT concerning
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Medical Decision Making Act of 2005
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FOR the purpose of establishing domestic life partnerships in the State for certain
purposes; prohibiting an individual from claiming the benefits of a domestic life
partnership except under certain circumstances; establishing certain crimes and
penalties; requiring individuals to register with the Secretary of Health and
Mental Hygiene in order to enter into a domestic life partnership; establishing
certain qualifications for individuals registering a domestic partnership;
establishing certain registration procedures; requiring individuals to register
with the Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene in order to enter into a life
partnership; requiring the Secretary to develop certain forms and make the
forms available at certain locations; establishing certain procedures for applying
for and obtaining a certificate of life partnership; requiring the Secretary to set
certain fees; requiring the Secretary to provide certain information concerning
the identity of individuals on the life partnership registry under certain
circumstances; requiring the Secretary to adopt certain regulations; providing
certain procedures for the termination of a domestic life partnership; requiring a
domestic life partner that qualified for and claimed certain third party benefits
to provide notice to the third party on the termination of a domestic life
partnership; establishing certain rights for certain third parties; requiring the
Secretary to keep a certificate of domestic life partnership book records
concerning life partnerships containing certain information; requiring certain
health care facilities to allow domestic life partners and certain relatives of
domestic life partners to visit a domestic life partner except under certain
circumstances; requiring two adults to be treated as domestic life partners in
under certain circumstances related to medical emergencies; providing for the
scope of this Act; requiring a domestic partnership or civil union entered into
outside this State to be treated as a domestic partnership in this State;
establishing that the registration of a domestic partnership by two individuals
- 3900 -
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