Quote:
Originally Posted by Makedde
I hope you are not serious here, but I will quote just one thing here:
Now, I hope you are not serious, but if you are...
Polygamy should not be allowed because marriage should be defined to include only TWO people.
Beastiality should not be allowed because animals cannot consent to sex.
Prepubescent marriage should not be allowed because a child cannot consent to sex under law.
As I said, I hope this is just you trying to inject some humour into the debate.
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I have mixed opinions.
About polygamy, there is no reason marriage has to be between two people other than it makes the laws a lot easier to deal with. Polygamy is even popular in the bible which is at least a good historical story.
As for prepubescent marriage, it's just a tough call. Parental permission is an important element, however you always have to ask how much influence and force the parents had on making it happen. For instance, imagine dad wants to arrange a marriage between his 13 year old daughter and his 30 year old friend. Can the child say no? It's not an easy position we would be putting kids in with their parents who might want to force marriage on them. So making such marriages involving children protects the child from his/her parents.
My opinion about marriage is this... it started out not as a legal issue, just a social and religious matter. In this situation, I cold have cared less about arguments of marraige. However, things changed with government started to get involved. Why? I don't buy the "family" argument. We allow child molesters to marry, so obviously marriage is not about family, enough said.
Marriage, as a legal issues, is about money. A married couple is more financially secure than single people. When a married man gets sick, his wife takes care of him. When a man loses his job, his wife still has an income... Marriage is sort of a built in social welfare program for the government. On the other hand, when you are single, you are more likely to need to rely on the state for assistance if something goes sour in your life. This is why I believe financially encourages marriage and discourages divorce. Then there are all the rights that our current legal system requires (for instance, to make medical decisions).
So relating this to a legal marriage between a man and an animal, the animal can not take care of the man if he is sick or make medical decisions for him. So this is how I discredit the legal union of man and animal.
Polygamist introduce complicated legal issues regarding fair tax recognition, insurance benefits, inheritance, etc... I dont think there is anything wrong with polygamy in principle, but it's just complicated to figure out.