Jeez -- you really think sex between unmarried people should be criminalized? You really think that people who cheat on their spouses should be JAILED?
Ever consider relocating to, say, Saudi Arabia?
I think breaking agreements is wrong and "cheating on one's spouse" falls under that heading. It is at least tortious. I think sexual intercourse outside of matrimony is wrong.
When these activities were illegal there were problems. Legalizing them and, worse than that, making them socially acceptable has led to other problems. The story this thread is based on is one example. The increasing body of knowledge about the impact of divorce on children is another.
The number of little things which once were unthinkable and now are commonplace concerns me. I recently picked up a prescription and the label had a typo on it. I was calling on a hospital patient and watched the most casual room cleaning I have ever seen take place before my eyes. The employee knew she was doing a crappy job and didn't care.
In the early years of the 20th century intellectuals considered it "frank" and "free" and perfectly reasonable to shack up. Euthanasia was also considered the reasonable shedding of a cribbed, confined, and superstitious past. By the 60's and 70's artificial birth control and abortion on demand were considered "goes without saying" rights. The very sort of thing this thread is supposed to be about was not going to happen anymore if only we adopted tolerant and even liberated attitudes toward what two adults do in the privacy of their own bedrooom.
I remember the promises. I see their being shattered.
I have thought for years that when newspapers are stolen from the front of one's house, the end of civilization would be close. And now one of my wife's colleagues reports her newspaper has been stolen twice in the past week.
Of course, in itself a newspaper is a small thing. So is an erotic dalliance with some young thing one picks up only to drop later. Criminalization seems like overkill. I'm worried about what happens if we don't criminalize.
Neighbors heard the fight; nobody called the cops. The guy had been with the mother for maybe a couple of months. He was not the father of the child the mother is currently carrying.