wfn.org | Chemberlin affirms Obama memo on patient visitation rights

["Philip Jenks" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>]

>Chemberlin: churches find Obama memorandum
>on patient visits 'enhances the common good'

New York, April 16, 2010 -- The President of the National Council of  Churches 
said today that President Obama's memorandum to Health And  Human Services 
Secretary Kathleen Sibelius requiring hospitals to  "respect the rights of 
patients to designate visitors" will be "affirmed  by most Americans."

The presidential ruling, which applies to hospitals receiving Medicaid  or 
Medicare, assures that patient visits will not be denied "on the  basis of 
race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual  orientation, gender 
identity, or disability." 

The Rev. Canon Peg Chemberlin, issued the following statement:

"President Obama's memorandum on April 15, 2010 regarding respect for  
patients' rights, is simply that, a directive that tells hospitals to  respect 
the rights of the patient to designate visitors. This is, I  believe, inline 
with what most Americans would affirm. The patient gets  to decide.

"Health care facilities are a significant part of community life. They  are 
often the place where life emerges into community and where life  passes out of 
community. However, often a patient's community doesn't  fit the norm and so 
the loving care and kindness of the patient's  community are kept from them. 
This memorandum restores the opportunity  for such a community to be present. 
It allows the patient to name those  who make up his or her community.

"While the 36 member communions of the NCC have different views on  sexual 
orientation, we emphatically agree that - as we said in a  resolution in 1995 
-"The Church must stand with those persons whose  human rights are abridged or 
denied on the basis of sexual orientation."  Our affirmation of human rights 
gives us the perspective that the  President's memorandum enhances the common 
good. "

NCC resolution on human rights cam be downloaded at  
http://www.ncccusa.org/NCCpolicies/humanrights.fulfillmentoflife.htm

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office),  646-853-4212 (cell) 
, pjenks@ncccusa.org