Santorum Booed in New Hampshire While Discussing Gay Marriage

[phillyjim]

53. Santorum's comments raise important questions

The point I really wanted to make is that Santorum’s question (“Why shouldn’t three men be allowed to get married?”) is important and should not be dismissed as silly. It is important because it requires us to think about our own position on moral rights and related issues. Perhaps we should open up marriage to a larger set of arrangements (three men, three women, etc.). At first glance, I don’t see why we shouldn’t. But if at some point we want to draw a line, we have to think carefully about the rationale for doing so – especially if we are making a rights-based argument. Once we have claimed that marriage is a basic human right, it is no easy thing to justify a restriction on it. (The same thing is true for the right to free speech. For libertarians it is true for the right to property.) We need to go back to basic questions about moral rights. What exactly is the rationale for basic human rights in general? Of the right to marry in particular? What restrictions are justifiable? These are all questions that we need to answer if we are to have a coherent liberal philosophy that expresses more than what we like or dislike at a particular point in time.