The Legalization of Same Sex Marriage

There is a war being fought over how to define the term "marriage". This argument is fierce due the fact that the definition of marriage is being challenged on the basis of it’s morality or, in other words, whether it is right or wrong. Many conservative organizations such as religious and other social conservative groups contend that the definition of marriage should remain as or return to being the formal union of one man and one woman or in other words, a heterosexual couple, via legal commitments and/or religious ceremonies citing religious and social reasons. The other more liberal groups such as gay rights groups on the other hand contend that the traditional view is outdated and that nations should either adopt or retain the official recognition of the marriage of same sex unions as legitimate marriage stating that same sex couples composed of consenting adults should be allowed to the rights and responsibilities that come with marriage. Despite the calls to bestow upon consenting adults in same sex couples the rights and responsibilities of marriage, this should not be done on the basis of the morality and social implications of doing so.

In order to analyze this issue in a comprehensive manner one must analyze it from a normative ethical perspective. Normative ethics is the branch of ethics, the branch of philosophy that is defined as the science of human conduct that investigates the criteria of what should be considered right or wrong. The basis for using a normative ethical approach to resolve this is that the issue is within the scope of the field of applied ethics, the branch of philosophy that deals with specific, and controversial moral issues such as abortion, the death penalty and applied ethics has it’...

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