Ethical Issues in Marriage, Sexuality and Family Essay

Ethical Issues in Marriage, Sexuality and Family - Essay Example Generally, ethics is about determining and differentiating the good acts from the bad acts, developing good and accepted characters among people and fostering social order (Robin 20). Ethical issues Within the social structure, ethics is very much linked to marriage, sexuality and family. Ethics gives a guideline on what is expected of the contract union between husband and wife. Traditionally, marriage has been perceived as a lifelong committed relationship between a man and a woman with the purpose of procreation and upbringing of children with allowance of divorce only where any progeny have reached their maturity (McNeil, 198). However with introduction of new technology, this definition has been challenged and is loosing its meaning in the ethic. The universal acceptance of the contraceptives as a morally legitimate option that facilitates reproduction of children to be an optional choice for the married couples has brought a new face to the traditional marriage (Gallagher, 34). Marriage is no longer based on procreation achievement only but rather on ones happiness, pleasure and gain. Marriage has lost its ethical value in the society and adopted the contract perspective where couples can stay together and divorce or part ways at the will of either of the contracting party. Today, marriage is not necessarily a contract between people of the opposite sex but rather even people of the same sex (Cleves, 48). Homosexual and lesbian unions do as well qualify as marriages since today marriage is simply a contract between two parties that want to live together and not necessarily with the aim of procreation. This situation has been encouraged with the introduction of the new technologies that has seen people of the opposite sex using contraceptives to avoid procreation. At the same time, the scientific methods have made it possible for people of the same sex like the lesbian to also procreate and bear children (Allsopp & O’Keefe 78). Although this trend i s highly gaining popularity, it is still seen as in ethical for people of the same sex neither to marry nor to reproduce through the modern technologies that are seen as away of offending God who created human beings and advocated for opposite sex marriage as well as procreation. The sexual differentiation issue brings the debate of doing the good or bad in human being as per the ethics that do exists. The moral of doing well as in regard to sexual differentiation and reproduction is of importance since sex is a biological characteristic that is based with procreation. However sexuality faces ethical threat due to the fact that at the moment, developments in science and technology has made it possible for people to have sexual intercourse without necessary aiming to conceive a child (Aertsen 65). Also contemporary reproductive technologies have made it possible for people to conceive without necessarily engaging into sexual intercourse. This has witnessed severed relationship betwee n the link of sexual intercourse and that of procreation since they no longer depend on one another but they can be achieved independently of one another. Today people engage in sexual activities without the concern of being a father and mother but as personal preference to meet their desires (Gallagher 40). Naturally, men are supposed to be sexually attracted to women and women should be attracted to men. Today, men are attracted to follow men while women are attracted to fellow women and this has led to sexuality loosing its ethical standards and