When I originally posted that comment my thought was "no civil unions whatsoever" - basically the state should have no stake whatsoever in the relationship between two individuals. However what prompted my comment to marquiswildbill was a previous comment elsewhere that my opinion regrading marriage changes every ten minutes.
While writing this, I find myself disliking the idea of individualized contracts for multiple reasons. For example some of us may be unwilling or unable to hire a lawyer to draw up an indivdualized contract - doing away with a standard contract but allowing individualized ones means that low-income people will be entirely unable to get any of the benefits of marriage, and I would be very against such discrimination. I also like the idea of having some standard contract so that for most people quick decisions can be made in emergency situations, for example a hospital knowing who can make medical decisions for a patient if s/he is brought in already unconscious.
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While writing this, I find myself disliking the idea of individualized contracts for multiple reasons. For example some of us may be unwilling or unable to hire a lawyer to draw up an indivdualized contract - doing away with a standard contract but allowing individualized ones means that low-income people will be entirely unable to get any of the benefits of marriage, and I would be very against such discrimination. I also like the idea of having some standard contract so that for most people quick decisions can be made in emergency situations, for example a hospital knowing who can make medical decisions for a patient if s/he is brought in already unconscious.