Sesame Street

[James G. Dwyer]

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Rick Duncan [SMTP:keaggy at EXCITE.COM]
        Sent:   Tuesday, October 19, 1999 11:03 AM
        To:     RELIGIONLAW at listserv.ucla.edu
        Subject:        Sesame Street


        * * * When I think about Ricky and Lucy I don't think about them
engaging in
        anal sex (although I suppose they might). I think about their
        complementarity, about their love expressing itself as part of the
process
        that brought them the miracle of Little Ricky. In this regard, Ricky
and
        Fred are nothing like Ricky and Lucy, because anal sex is in no way
similar
        to sex of the procreative kind.


I ask my family law students each year why there should be any legal or
economic benefits conferred on married people who do not have children, and
I've never received a good answer.  Rick, do you think there is any reason
why the state should celebrate marriage per se?  Correct me if I'm wrong,
but I don't think the Catholic Church traditionally has done so; rather, it
celebrates marriage as a means to the desired end of procreation, and in
fact traditionally has frowned on married people having sex without the
intention of procreating.  Married people who chose not to have children
were scorned, and inability to procreate was grounds for anullment by the
Church.  Should we, then, eliminate state-conferred benefits for childless
unions altogether, and confer benefits only when couples become parents?
There are clear reasons for the state supporting parents, but a childless
couple has a weaker claim, in terms of financial need, than single persons.
If there is some reason to celebrate and reward marriage per se, independent
of the expectation of procreation, does it serve to distinguish heterosexual
from homosexual unions?  And I would ask Andy a similar question; is there
some reason to give health and other benefits to gay partners who are not
raising children?  Or is the case for ensuring health care in that context
indistinguishable from the case for simply ensuring health care for every
member of society?

Jim Dwyer


Professor Jim Dwyer
University of Wyoming College of Law
P.O. Box 3035
Laramie, Wyoming 82071-3035
(307) 766-2395
jdwyer at uwyo.edu