MARRIAGE AND PARENTING: Michael Brazier replies to Mark Miller

[Anything said by Miller is in bold; anything said by Brazier is in plain text.]

Brazier: To point out the obvious: Marriage is not, and never was, reducible to having "your relationship acknowledged." The civil rights argument for SSM works only if marriage can be so reduced.

Miller: That seems to be the main argument against SSM, that it reduces marriage to a "right." But that doesn't work, certainly from a legal point of view. How else do you explain that institutionalized criminals have a right to marry?

Brazier: How is it possible for institutionalized criminals to have a "relationship"--of, that is, the kind you would maintain legal marriage exists to acknowledge? The point of prison is to cut off the prisoners from social relations, except as permitted by the authorities. Surely, under these conditions, prisoners cannot form intimate bonds, nor make or accept promises of fidelity and mutual support. How then would you justify the right of prisoners to marry?

Miller: But your argument is that adoption policies should not apply to marriage policies--which makes no sense, since your argument against acknowledging same-sex relationships is based on the "biological" fact that same-sex couple cannot be parents.

Brazier: Adoption is a backup. It's meant for children who for some reason cannot be raised by their true parents. The idea that, because the adoption bureau treats homosexuals just like heterosexuals, therefore the marriage bureau should too, is spurious; the adoption bureau is not dealing with normal situations, while the marriage bureau is.

Miller: To point out the obvious, marriage is not, never was about encouraging natural parents to discharge their duties to the person they brought into the world.

Brazier: Then what is the institution that exists to serve that purpose? If there is none, what should exist to serve that purpose, if anything? That marriage does so in fact, nobody would deny; that it does so by accident, many would find hard to believe.
posted by Eve at 5:35 PM | link

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