Social Satire :: essays research papers

In the United States, there are received inalienable rights granted to all. As the Declaration of Independence of the original bakers dozen colonies conveys, "among these are Life, Liberty and the interest of Happiness."(Jefferson, 1787, Declaration of Ind., Pg. 1) These rights are not " spare rights." While the U.S. government activity cannot hold back upon these rights, it does have the power to sign and enforce laws that will enable or restrict its citizens use of them.As a realistic part of the rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, freedom in ones interior(prenominal) relationships is very important. The freedom to put together ones domestic relationships in ways that best fit ones needs, desires, and life is critical in ones pursuit of happiness. The importance of this freedom to arrange ones domestic relationships freely becomes understandable in versions of the "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA), which is proposed, and sometimes passed, on the national and read levels. DOMA legislation, in its varied forms, limits the jural rendering of marriage to the legal fusion of a man and woman. (Sullivan, 1976, DOMA Act, pg. 2)As the First Amendment to the U.S. system states, "Congress shall throw off no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...." (Jefferson, 1787, Constitution of U.S., PG. 4) The tradition of Judeo-Christian "marriage" is the life-long heterosexual union of one phallic and one female this definition kick outs all other possible combinations. The U.S. government has given itself the power to make this definition of "marriage" (which is a religious establishment) a state definition and to give it special privileges and legal status. The legal status, privileges and other benefits of legally recognized marriage are withheld from those unions that are different from the traditional union of marriage. The "benefits" of legall y recognized marriage hold medical care and visitation rights, death and distribution of ones estate, child wait and parental rights. Expanding the definition of marriage to include homosexual and heterosexual domestic partners, as certain popular political movements have requested, will not solve this issue. There are many different ways masses can have relationships and to define them all in a state definition would be difficult. Even if this could be done it would still exclude single men and women who choose not to be in such a relationship from these benefits. The just answer is to eliminate marriage as state establishment, and to place it within the private jurisdiction as the definition of religion is.