CARSON CITY -- A group of frustrated grandparents asked Nevada lawmakers Thursday to pass a law that would give them standing in court to fight for the right to visit their grandchildren.

Nevada law allows grandparents to take their case for visitation to court only if a child's parents are separated. In the case of intact, two-parent families, the visitation decisions rest solely with the parents.

Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to support Senate Bill 204, which would allow grandparents seeking visitation rights to take their case to court. Grandparents would have to win in court to get visitation rights, a case which even supporters admit grandparents usually lose. A similar bill in 2005 died in the Assembly.

Nevada law doesn't support family values but rather only "nuclear family values," said Dr. Michael Freda, one of the bill's supporters. Sometimes parents don't always make decisions in the best interest of the child, he added.

Freda said he and his wife, Karen Goodwill-Freda, both marriage and family therapists, said parents sometimes have drug or alcohol problems that lead to poor parenting.

He also said most states have revamped their visitation statutes since a key U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2000.

The thrust of the decision is that states must be careful in helping grandparents and others with close ties to children win the right to see them regularly against parents' wishes. Notably, it gave grandparents nationwide no special status in visitation cases.

"When your own child ... tells you have no rights to visit your grandchildren, that's the most intentional, hurtful betrayal that you as a parent can experience," said Karen Goodwill-Freda.

Several other grandparents spoke about how arguments or other disagreements with their children have led to them being unable to visit their grandchildren for years.

Jan Gilbert of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, who opposes the bill, said outside the hearing that if grandparents are aware of serious problems such as drug abuse or child abuse, there are existing authorities that can be called in for help.

As long as parents are competent, they should be the final decision makers, Gilbert said.

"We're talking about the best interests of the child," said Gilbert. "The state has no business interfering with the child-rearing decisions of competent parents."

Other opponents of the bill are scheduled to speak to the panel in a hearing Tuesday.