Marriage and Procreation: The Intrinsic Connection

The Witherspoon Institute has a rather short but rigorous paper (Hattip NOMBlog) discussing the nature of marriage, and its link to procreation. It also brings one point of insight about fertility and infertility that I'd like to point out...

It is sometimes objected that infertile couples cannot biologically unite, since their act is not in fact capable of procreating—they cannot (it is objected) perform an act that is procreative in kind, which is necessary for a biological union. However, no couple can directly or simply choose to procreate. The only thing any couple can directly do regarding procreation is to perform the kind of act that will lead to procreation, provided other conditions extrinsic to their conduct obtain. (Thus, children are not products of their parents’ sexual acts: rather, parents should rightly view them as gifts that supervene upon their bodily expression of love in their sexual union.) So, opposite-sex couples who are infertile can perform precisely the same kind of act that fertile couples can perform. In both cases, they fulfill the behavioral conditions of procreation. And so the sexual intercourse of an infertile couple, no less than that of a fertile couple, unites them biologically: they mate, even though, in the case of the infertile couple, procreation will not result. In each case, their sexual act can consummate or embody their marriage.

That isn't too far distant from what we've said, the difference between infertile couples and same-sex couples who want to be married is that the infertile couples are at least trying. The insight from this article comes in realizing that no one expects all sex to produce children, it happens when the conditions are right. The only conditions we have control over is the equal representation of the genders (one man and one woman), and the behavior engaged in between them. Everything else is beyond our control.

The right conditions mean everything, especially when they are as evident as one man and one woman. I'd only add, would or should we say infertility is a reason to bar marriage? There are many reasons why that isn't a good idea, but for the purpose of this particular piece, the most important seems to be that all the other reasons are beyond the couple's control. In other words, they are doing everything they can.