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Marriage about more than Plug A, Socket B

Elizabeth Wyand East Lyme

Publication: The Day

Published 08/31/2010 12:00 AM
Updated 08/31/2010 05:52 AM

In the letter titled "No reason for marriage if pair can't procreate," published Aug. 26, the author suggests that marriage is an institution solely for the purpose of procreation. However, if this were so, would society not also prevent the marriages of elderly couples? What about couples where one or both are infertile? Or couples who do not desire to have children? Should they be prohibited from marriage?
In those early chapters of the Bible to which the letter writer refers, marriage between the first man and first woman is not even mentioned. It was only after Eden, when their descendants claimed property, that marriage became a standard practice. Countless children through the ages have been born out of wedlock; clearly, marriage is not a necessity for procreation. It is, however, a necessity for the provision of familial rights and dispensation of assets; it is a public symbol of a binding legal agreement. These days, this includes a person's guardianship over their partner's affairs in an emergency.
If marriage were solely an issue regarding the right to fit Plug A into Socket B, then the so-called "sanctity" of it was destroyed long ago. Let people have equal legal rights.

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