Storrow, Richard F. “Rescuing Children from the Marriage Movement: The Case Against Marital Status Discrimination in Adoption and Assisted Reproduction.” U.C. Davis Law Review 39, no. 2 (February 2006): 304–70.
Annotation
In this article, Storrow presents the argument that discrimination against unmarried individuals in adoption and assisted reproduction is unfounded since they do not relate to either the purpose of marriage or to the child’s well-being. Society gives marriage great importance as being essential to “the advancement of civilization” (15). Nonetheless, marriage’s actual, unromanticised purpose is to provide readily available heterosexual intercourse, legitimate offspring, and ensure two parents raise a child. In this way, marriage acts as a key factor in providing or denying access to reproductive services, even though it is not actually necessary to raise a child. Currently, being married is not longer necessary for artificial insemination, but persists for surrogacy and adoption. The system limits surrogacy to only married couples, and the adoption process serves to favor married couples over unmarried individuals. Preceding this discussion, a large portion of the review also focuses on analyzing the emerging marriage movement. It is a reaction to the perceived decline in the heterosexual married couple that creates a family by having children. Yet the ideology of the movement is narrow and outdated, because even if it tries to claim that its primary dedication is to children’s welfare, it is actually trying to revive an outdated system of marriage that has already been deemed unequal and unconstitutional.
This article is particularly helpful to understand the logical incoherence of favoring married couples in abortion and surrogacy. Because it debunks the arguments against equal access to these forms of reproduction, and because it discredits the goals of the developing marriage movement, it very useful to understand the legal basis of support for this topic.