General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Should plural marriage (more than one partner) be legalized? [View all][font style="font-family:papyrus,'Brush Script MT','Infindel B',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]Lets say a straight woman marries one man and then another.
Are the men married to each other? If one of them wants a divorce, what percentage of the income from each person does the ex-spouse get in alimony from the woman and other man? What if a man wants a 2nd wife but the first wife doesn't want to agree to it? The first wife's income and rights would be affected and then the question of what say she gets in HER own marriage becomes a question. What about the Man? Or the woman he wants to marry? If one man wants to divorce the other man but not the woman will that work? How would property be divided up?
Imagaine:
Person A is married to persons B and C
Person B is married to persons A and D.
Person C is married to persons A and E.
Person D is married to persons B and F.
Person E is married to persons C and G.
Person F is married to persons D and H.
How are they ever going to get that to work? Or taxes? Or who owns what property? Joint bank accounts? Who gets whose SS? Who gets what part of their job benefits? What if Wife A is divorcing Husband B who tries to get around it by transferring all his assets to wife D?
Divorce and marriage laws would have to be completely reworked. There are over a 1000 rights and privileges associated with marriage and almost every one would have to be worked from the ground up. As things are with 2 people divorces are messy long affairs, now image that with 3, 4 , or 5 people.
Not to mention that almost every case of polygamy (not true group marriage but similar) involves abuse and exploitation? How do you prevent that?
Also, don't forget, we would have to settle all the disagreements that would come up in handling these issues. There are no dictators in this country.
Group marriage is a hornet's nest of legal, logistical and ethical issues. Fix all of those and you have my support, but otherwise I think supporting that would shatter our family courts.[/font]