DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Even Greener Pastures
HTML https://evengreener.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: General Discussion
*****************************************************
#Post#: 19310--------------------------------------------------
Is child marriage legal in your country? What is your opinion re
garding its consequences?
By: Sepideh Date: September 3, 2019, 8:16 am
---------------------------------------------------------
...
#Post#: 19312--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is child marriage legal in your country? What is your opinio
n regarding its consequences?
By: SHL Date: September 3, 2019, 12:46 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
First, I think it depends on what age you are talking about. You
said “child marriage” so I don’t know the age range you mean
exactly.
The US has teenage marriage, which is legal only under certain
circumstances (under age 18) and is highly variable from
State-to-State. It is not a federal matter (the US government
has nothing to do with it and doesn’t legislate with regard to
it).
HTML https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_marriage_in_the_United_States
Overall marriages of people under 18 are rare in the US, with
the rate being 5/1000 persons aged 15-17.
I personally think no one should get married until age 30, if at
all (I’d recommend never). Marriage in the West is a dying
institution, in my opinion, and I counsel people against it at
every opportunity. There are few gains, a HUGE cost and the
divorce rate exceeds 50% eventually. People who have never been
married, but had (normally serial) relationships and children,
are overall far better off in the long run and happier.
I personally think the minimum age for marriage (no exceptions)
should be 18.
#Post#: 19313--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is child marriage legal in your country? What is your opinio
n regarding its consequences?
By: SHL Date: September 3, 2019, 12:57 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Sepideh link=topic=1351.msg19310#msg19310
date=1567516595]
...
[/quote]
Consequences of child marriage on girls:
“
Health
Child marriage threatens the health and life of girls.[304][305]
Complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the main cause
of death among adolescent girls below age 19 in developing
countries. Girls aged 15 to 19 are twice as likely to die in
childbirth as women in their 20s, and girls under the age of 15
are five to seven times more likely to die during
childbirth.[62] These consequences are due largely to girls'
physical immaturity wherefore the pelvis and birth canal are not
fully developed. Teen pregnancy, particularly below age 15,
increases risk of developing obstetric fistula, since their
smaller pelvises make them prone to obstructed labor.[62] Girls
who give birth before the age of 15 have an 88% risk of
developing fistula.[62] Fistula leaves its victims with urine or
fecal incontinence that causes lifelong complications with
infection and pain.[306] Unless surgically repaired, obstetric
fistulas can cause years of permanent disability, shame to
mothers, and can result in being shunned by the
community.[98][307] Married girls also have a higher risk of
sexually transmitted diseases, cervical cancer, and malaria than
non-married peers or girls who marry in their 20s.[62]
Child marriage also threatens the lives of offspring. Mothers
under the age of 18 years have 35 to 55% increased risk of
delivering pre-term or having a low birth weight baby than a
mother who is 19 years old. In addition, infant mortality rates
are 60% higher when the mother is under 18 years old. Infants
born to child mothers tend to have weaker immune systems and
face a heightened risk of malnutrition.[98]”
#Post#: 19314--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is child marriage legal in your country? What is your opinio
n regarding its consequences?
By: Nikola Date: September 3, 2019, 1:55 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
I think the marriageable age is pretty consistent across Europe,
it's 18 in most countries, although I just read that it's 16 in
Scotland. This is what I found on exceptions in my country:
Article 672 of Act No. 89/2012 Coll. the Civil Code (which came
into force in 2014) states that the court may, in exceptional
cases, allow a marriage of a 16 year old, if there are serious
reasons for it. Moreover, a minor can marry if he or she has
been granted full capacity by a court decision as given by
Article 37 of the Civil Code.
I find the idea of any forced marriage terrifying. I heard of
several consensual child marriages in the Western world and
those young people might have even been more mature than some
adults who get married but it still feels wrong.
#Post#: 19315--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is child marriage legal in your country? What is your opinio
n regarding its consequences?
By: NealC Date: September 4, 2019, 12:54 am
---------------------------------------------------------
I think it should be nine.
But only if you marry a prophet.
#Post#: 19317--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is child marriage legal in your country? What is your opinio
n regarding its consequences?
By: Truman Overby Date: September 4, 2019, 6:19 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Minors are by law unable to consent to sex. Marriage involves
sex. Ergo, children are not allowed consent to marriage.
I think there's a few US states where minors can get a waiver to
be married. It's a horrible thing that should be illegal
everywhere.
#Post#: 19318--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is child marriage legal in your country? What is your opinio
n regarding its consequences?
By: Nikola Date: September 4, 2019, 2:22 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=The Artist formerly known as Truman Overby
link=topic=1351.msg19317#msg19317 date=1567595968]
Minors are by law unable to consent to sex. Marriage involves
sex. Ergo, children are not allowed consent to marriage.
I think there's a few US states where minors can get a waiver to
be married. It's a horrible thing that should be illegal
everywhere.
[/quote]
You're right, I've never thought about it this way. Here, the
age of consent is 15 so you get a three-year free trial before
they let you subscribe.
#Post#: 19319--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is child marriage legal in your country? What is your opinio
n regarding its consequences?
By: SHL Date: September 4, 2019, 9:15 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Nikola link=topic=1351.msg19318#msg19318
date=1567624959]
[quote author=The Artist formerly known as Truman Overby
link=topic=1351.msg19317#msg19317 date=1567595968]
Minors are by law unable to consent to sex. Marriage involves
sex. Ergo, children are not allowed consent to marriage.
I think there's a few US states where minors can get a waiver to
be married. It's a horrible thing that should be illegal
everywhere.
[/quote]
You're right, I've never thought about it this way. Here, the
age of consent is 15 so you get a three-year free trial before
they let you subscribe.
[/quote]
Many US States have age of consent laws that vary between 16 and
18 (usually one or the other). Washington State has an age of
consent of 16, but California has always had 18. But, back in
the 70s California had a double standard, which I think the
courts upheld. It was 16 for males and 18 for females. So, at
one time a 16 year old guy could have a lot of fun with his 25
year old neighbor, and it was all legal, but flip it around,
and if the girl were 16 and the guy 25, the guy was facing jail
time and a sex offender record.
So, guys challenged the law as discriminatory, which it clearly
was, but the State Attorney General defended the law saying the
intent was to protect girls under 18 from pregnancies. Well,
guys had nothing to worry about in that regard, true. In fact,
they were having the time of their lives and bragging to all
their buddies about the “older woman” age roughly 25, they just
got with when they were 16 ( a 25 year old is old to a 16 year
old).
Later, the legislature didn't like the discriminatory aspect of
the law and just upped the age to 18 for all. It kind of made
sense. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander and all.
That law never seemed terribly fair to me.
I could be wrong but I read once the minimum age of consent in
Germany was 14, but it was a soft 14. In other words, the basic
law was perhaps 16 (maybe 15, not sure) but it wasn’t what we
call in law a “strict liability law”, like drunk driving. So if
the 14 year old were exceptionally mature/precocious for his or
her age, they could say it was legal. It’s a flexible standard
depending on the maturity of the person. I personally think that
kind of law makes more sense than a strict liability law, since
some 15 year olds are very mature and some are not. Some 18 year
olds are no more mature than some 15 year olds.
You know the old cry of a guy who went to an underage
prostitute: “But Judge. She was 15 going on 32!! How was I to
know?” That’s sort of the idea. Why not allow that as a
defense? As long as the prostitute is not under a certain age.
They used to have that flexible defense in drunk driving cases.
There was no set maximum blood alcohol that made it
automatically illegal to drive, like 0.5, (most places in
Europe), 0.8 (in most places in the US) or 1.0. (A few places
in the US still.) They just said you can’t drive “impaired” or
“under the influence.” But what was “impaired” supposed to mean?
Or “under the influence?” Very defensible. So, your guy could
blow a 1.6 and we used to be able to say, “yeah, he was so
tolerant to alcohol, he was stone cold sober at 1.6 where the
most of use would be out of it.” And that was a legitimate
defense.
Then Sweden was the first country to say, “no way” to that and
create what are called the “per se” standards. It just says,
it’s illegal to drive, impaired or not, with a blood alcohol
level of XYZ or above (I think Sweden has like a ridiculously
low number, like 0.2, which is so low a breathalyzer machine
can’t even register it).
So, why have per se standards regarding age of consent to sex
laws? It’s the same analogy. So, I think some flexibility within
some range makes sense to take into account individual
differences. But, with marriage, forget it. 18 should be the
minimum age, no exceptions (marriage is a lousy institution as
it is).
*****************************************************