> Since society's role in assigning adoptions should entirely give > consdieration to the needs and rights of the child - not to the desires of > the adopters, I think that society should try and meet the reasonable > expectations of the child whenever possible, since of course, there is no > way of determining any contrary desire of the child. >
If the needs of the child are everything, would you take a child away from bad parents? How about loving, responsible atheist parents - would you take a child away from them since they are not raising the child to be religious? How about a very poor couple - would you take their child away and give it to a wealthy, childless couple who could presumably do a better job or at least raise the child in something other than abject poverty? All of those could be construed to be logical extensions of any doctrine that the needs of the child are paramount. Which this country says all the time and practices none of the time. But in any case, this is a classic "straw man" argument and is entirely irrelevant to the qustion of whether or not gays should be permitted to legally marry! Not all heterosexual couples marry to have children (my older sister knew her entire life she never wanted kids - and she and her husband have not had any). Should we ban them from marrying? We don't require heterosexual couples to declare anything about their intentions to procreate before they marry - it's none of our business. And it shouldn't be. This is a question of simple equity - of the equal protection of the laws. If the government is going to be in the business of taking official notice of certain private actions, it either should extend that notice to all similar actions or to none. As always, my response to people who don't want gay marriage is simple - don't have one. Tom Beck www.prydonians.org www.mercerjewishsingles.org "I always knew I'd see the first man on the Moon. I never dreamed I'd see the last." - Dr Jerry Pournelle _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
