The Respectful Conversations project is an effort to bring together those who disagree about the most controversial issues, to state disagreements civilly and with mutual respect, and to achieve as much mutual understanding as possible. This month’s discussion concerns how marriage should be defined in law. Perhaps no issue in contemporary public discourse today is less likely to lead to a respectful conversation.
I was invited to make the case for natural marriage. As I explain in this essay, the legal norms of marriage incorporate the natural norms of marriage not because Jews or Christians (or Muslims, or Greek philosophers, or…) say so but because marriage is for children. Specifically, natural marriage laws secure the right of each child to be connected to her mother and father.
Adam J. MacLeod
Adam J. MacLeod is a member of the Maine and Massachusetts (inactive) bars and an Associate Professor at Faulkner University, Jones School of Law. He is the author of “Property and Practical Reason” (Cambridge University Press) and dozens of articles in journals in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, many of which can be accessed at his website.
