Other Definitions
next of kin (dict)
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Next Of KinNext of kin is the term used to describe a person's closest living blood relative or relatives. In many legal systems, rights regarding inheritance and substitute decision making capacity (for example, in a medical emergency) where no clear will or instructions have been given, and the person has no spouse, flow to their closest relative of the age of majority, usually a parent or a sibling, but occasionally an adult child. However, there are people without any close adult relatives and, in such a case, decision making power often flows to a first cousin, aunt, uncle, or grandparent. For example, if a person dies intestate, the laws of most states require the estate to be distributed to the person's spouse and/or children. However, if there are none of these, the estate can often be distributed to the next closest group of living relatives, whether they be parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts & uncles, or even second cousins in extreme cases. Similarly, the decision about funeral arrangements for an unmarried person without children are also made by the next closest relative. In cases of medical emergency, where a person is incapable (either legally because of age or mental infirmity, or because they are unconscious) of making decisions for themselves and they have no spouse or children, medical decisions can be made by the next of kin in preference to the wishes of medical personnel. The inability of persons who are not in a legal marriage to make decisions with respect to the care of a live-in partner have resulted in many jurisdictions giving live-in partners rights equivalent to a spouse in such situations, even though most jurisdictions still do not require non-spouses to be made beneficiaries of estates (it is improper in most jurisdictions to disinherit a spouse). The inability of same-sex partners to have rights with respect to a partner's medical care or funeral arrangements over and above those of the next of kin was one of the main reasons behind litigation to require gay marriage or its equivalent. For the purposes of next of kin, adopted children are treated as blood relatives. However, relatives by marriage only are never considered to be next of kin.
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