配偶者が精神異常になった場合
これらの方針のいずれに対しても,大きな異議(反対)がある。完全に性を断つことは,特に結婚生活ですでに性に慣れている人にとっては,非常に辛いことである。それは,男性であれ,女性であれ,非常に多くの場合,早く年をとらせてしまうことになる。神経障害を引き起こす恐れもないわけではない。いずれにせよ,無理な努力をするために,感じが悪く,けちで,気難しいタイプの性格になりやすい。男性の中には,自制心が突然くずれて,残虐な行為に及ぶという,重大な危険が常に存在している。というのも,もしも,婚外の性交はすべて邪悪であると心から信じているなら,実際にそういう性交を求めるなら毒をくらわば皿まで(he might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb 子羊を盗んで縛り首になるくらいなら、親羊を盗んで縛り首になった方がまし)という気持ちになり,その結果,いっさいの道徳的な抑制をかなぐり捨ててしまう恐れがあるからである。 |
Chapter XVI: Divorce, n.4Neither the Protestant nor the Catholic point of view in this matter can be upheld on rational grounds.Let us take the Catholic point of view first. Suppose that the husband or wife becomes insane after marriage; it is in this case not desirable that further children should spring from an insane stock, nor yet that any children who may already be born should be brought into contact with insanity. Complete separation of the parents, even supposing that the one who is insane has longer or shorter lucid intervals, is therefore desirable in the interests of the children. To decree that in this case the sane partner shall never be permitted any legally recognized sex relations is a wanton cruelty which serves no public purpose whatever. The sane partner is left with a very painful choice. He or she may decide in favour of continence, which is what the law and public morals expect ; or in favour of surreptitious relations, presumably childless ; or in favour of what is called open sin, with or without children. To each of these courses there are grave objections. Complete abstinence from sex, especially for one already accustomed to it in marriage, is very painful. It leads either a man or a woman, very often, to become prematurely old. It is not unlikely to produce nervous disorders, and in any case the effort involved tends to produce a disagreeable, grudging, and ill-tempered type of character. In a man, there is always a grave danger that his self-control will suddenly give way, leading him to acts of brutality, for if he is genuinely persuaded that all intercourse outside marriage is wicked, he is likely, if he does seek such intercourse, to feel that he might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb, and therefore to throw off all moral restraints. |