Is Marriage a Right? (virgin, divorce)

[Sunstone]

Originally Posted by krashlocke

What, then, does the state gain by insuring it as a natural right - any furthermore by creating incentives to marry?

Broadly speaking, the state gains a more stable society. That is, marriage contributes to the stability of society.

[krashlocke]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

Broadly speaking, the state gains a more stable society. That is, marriage contributes to the stability of society.

Is this concept of social stability from marriage borne from the ideal or the reality? I generally agree with you on principle but like many principles can we justify that the practice has worked that well? Perhaps if the how of it's contribution could be called into question...?

[Sunstone]

Originally Posted by krashlocke

Is this concept of social stability from marriage borne from the ideal or the reality? I generally agree with you on principle but like many principles can we justify that the practice has worked that well? Perhaps if the how of it's contribution could be called into question...?

That's a good question. To get some idea of how much marriage promotes social stablility, try to imagine what would happen if you banned it. If you think about that a little, you will readily see some of the ways marriage promotes social stability. For instance: One likely consequence of banning marriage would be a dramatic increase in the number of children living in poverty, and poverty is not conducive to social stability.

Marriage is an institution that most certainly goes back in one form or another to the very origins of our species. To form pair bonds is a part of human nature. And it is especially telling that even when people don't get legally married, they instinctively pair off in large numbers. There is no known society or culture on earth in which pair bonding is not typical. It's one of the basic ways in which humans structure themselves socially.

[Bright-ness' Shadow]

Originally Posted by krashlocke

I'm not quite familiar with the term you're using... maybe you could explain it to me?

It is where some of the other already acknowledged share a characteristic of individual protection. The right to have sex without government intrusion in the "bedroom", the right to associate with people of one's choosing, the parental right to conduct home-schooling, the right to be personally in charge of reproductive functions (contraceptioin), in fact, all rights that allow a person to make a personal choice without government control go toward the concept of a right of privacy. Marriage is but one of those choices.

The right to privacy is autonomy.

[michel]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

The US Constitution does not enumerate many rights for the simple reason that they were taken by the Framers to be obvious. Marriage is one of those rights that is so fundamental to human nature it would must have seemed absurd to the Framers to specifically list it. For instance: No where in the Constitution does it say you have a right not to be maimed, but you certainly have a right not to be maimed.

I agree. I think that marriage is 'natural' (and sensible) 'right' which confirms what nature wants us to do.

[Wandered Off]

What if we got the government out of marriage altogether, so that the government only granted about civil unions that conferred the necessary legal status, and people who wanted formal marriages could do it at a church? The same-sex marriage issue would go away, because the government would not be in the marriage business at all. Would that do more damage than good?

[doppelgänger]

Originally Posted by Wandered Off

What if we got the government out of marriage altogether, so that the government only granted about civil unions that conferred the necessary legal status, and people who wanted formal marriages could do it at a church? The same-sex marriage issue would go away, because the government would not be in the marriage business at all. Would that do more damage than good?

I think that's a fantastic idea.

[Revasser]

Originally Posted by doppelgänger

I think that's a fantastic idea.

Except for all the problems with international treaties it may cause.