リンゼー判事が提案する試験結婚
第一に,試験結婚の間(期間),子供を作ることを考えてはならず,従って,入手可能な最良の産児制限の情報(注:ここでは妊娠しないための情報)が,若いカップルに提供されなければならない。第二に,子供がなく,かつ,妻が妊娠していない場合にかぎり,相互の同意により離婚が可能でなければならない。第三に,離婚する場合は,妻に離婚手当てを受ける権利を与えてはならない。 彼は,もしも,このような制度が法律によって確立されたなら,非常に多くの若い人たち,たとえば大学生たちが,比較的永続的なパートナー関係に入れるし,そうなれば(必然的に)共同生活をすることになり(involving a common life),彼らの現在の性関係の乱交的な特徴もなくなるであろうという考えを抱いているが,私もそれは正しいと思う。彼(リンゼー判事)は,結婚している若い学生は,結婚していない学生よりも,いっそう勉強するという証拠をつけ加えている【注:成句 bring ... to bear:(注意・努力などを・・・に)注ぐ;(圧力などを・・・に)加える】。確かに,学業(勉強)と性は,パーティーやアルコールの刺激という騒ぎと興奮の中でよりも,半永続的な関係の中でのほうがはるかに容易に両立しやすいことは,明らかである。二人の若者が別々に生活するよりも,一緒に生活するほうが高くつくという理由は,どこを捜しても(under the sun)見当たらない。それゆえ,現在,結婚の延期をもたらしている経済的な理由は,もはや影響を及ぼさないであろう。リンゼー判事の案は,もし法制化された場合には,非常に有益な影響を及ぼすだろうし,また,その影響は,道徳的見地から見て,全ての人が利益であると同意するようなものであることに,私はまったく疑いをもっていない。 |
Chapter XII: Trial Marriage, n.5Judge Ben B. Lindsey, who was for many years in charge of the juvenile court at Denver, and in that position had unrivalled opportunities for ascertaining the facts, proposed a new institution which he calls "companionate marriage". Unfortunately he has lost his official position, for when it became known that he used it rather to promote the happiness of the young than to give them a consciousness of sin, the Ku Klux Klan and the Catholics combined to oust him. Companionate marriage is the proposal of a wise conservative. It is an attempt to introduce some stability into the sexual relations of the young, in place of the present promiscuity. He points out the obvious fact that what prevents the young from marrying is lack of money, and that money is required in marriage partly on account of children, but partly also because it is not the thing for the wife to earn her own living. His view is that young people should be able to enter upon a new kind of marriage, distinguished from ordinary marriage by three characteristics. First, that there should be for the time being no intention of having children, and that accordingly the best available birth-control information should be given to the young couple. Second, that so long as there are no children and the wife is not pregnant, divorce should be possible by mutual consent. And third, that in the event of divorce, the wife should not be entitled to alimony. He holds, and I think rightly, that if such an institution were established by law, a very great many young people, for example students at universities, would enter upon comparatively permanent partnerships, involving a common life, and free from the Dionysiac characteristics of their present sex relations. He brings evidence to bear that young students who are married do better work than such as are unmarried. It is indeed obvious that work and sex are more easily combined in a quasi-permanent relation than in the scramble and excitement of parties and alcoholic stimulation. There is no reason under the sun why it should be more expensive for two young people to live together than to live separately, and therefore the economic reasons which at present lead to postponement of marriage would no longer operate. I have not the faintest doubt that Judge Lindsey's plan, if embodied in the law, would have a very beneficent influence, and that this influence would be such as all might agree to be a gain from a moral point of view. |