Wednesday, September 6th, 2006
An interesting twist from Great Britain: Sisters demand same-sex couple rights. Two elderly sisters are taking the British government to the European Court of Human Rights, saying that they are being discriminated against because they are single. They’ve been trying since 1976 to get inheritance law changed, because as of now if either of them dies the other will have to pay taxes.
My instinctive response is “no way” – benefits like these are for married/domestic partnerships, not just anybody. It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it is. If the sisters get what they want, the whole of inheritance law can basically be written off because relatives will just say to the court that they deserve the same thing. Unless a system is established to prove a symbiotic relationship (call it co-dependent if you will), I don’t think this is going to fly.
