How Should the Law Treat LATs?

Starting from theories about the purposes of family law, this chapter addresses first how to decide what the appropriate legal treatment of any group should be. Focusing on the economic relationships between LAT partners and the caregiving they provide for one another, I argue that the law should support and facilitate LATs’ mutual caretaking—by extending hospital visitation rights to LAT partners, for example, including them within the class of persons eligible for family and medical leave to care for a partner, making it possible for them to cover one another under their health insurance policies, and enabling them to receive pensions and bequests without taxation, just as a spouse would be able to do. I conclude with proposals for legal reform in the legal treatment of LATs.