Surpreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, responding to Charles Cooper, the lawyer defending Proposition 8, the California "gay marriage" ban, after he insisted that the primary purpose of marriage is procreation, responded sarcastically, "..if the couple - I can assure you, if both the woman and the man are over the age of 55, there are not a lot of children coming out of that marriage." See here.
Yes, it's entirely true that people marry for a variety of motives: for love, for companionship, for money or economic considerations, for position. And the idea of having children may be very secondary and perhaps only tolerated rather than desired, in the minds of couples marrying. The idea of having children need not be uppermost in their minds. But there is no doubt that within marriage, procreation is primary in nature's design. We eat mostly for the pleasure we obtain from eating and we rarely think of its necessity for sustaining life. Nevertheless, the latter is the primary purpose of eating. The same is true for the sexual act. It may be done for pleasure, but its primary purpose is to sustain the race - procreation.
Marriage must conform to the natural law which is promulgated by God and is the objective order established by Him. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that, "The 'divine and natural' law shows man the way to follow so as to practice the good and attain his end." (CCC, 1955). And again: "The natural law, present in the heart of each man and established by reason, is universal in its precepts and its authority extends to all men. It expresses the dignity of the person and determines the basis for his fundamental rights and duties." (CCC, 1956).
The eternal law is in God. When applied to creatures, this eternal law is called the natural law. In nature we see that all things are bound by constant and uniform inclinations to attain definite ends. For example, it is natural for the sun to rise and light and heat the earth, for flowers to grow and bloom, for fish to swim and birds to fly, and for man to think thoughts and to share them with others. In each case, these things are simply obeying the law which is stamped on their natures by their Creator. This temporal effect of the eternal law which shows itself in creatures is what we mean by the natural law. It is called natural law because it is grounded in nature itself and manifests itself through nature, or essence or the constitution of things.
Now, getting back to Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. Her response to attorney Charles Cooper was not amusing and betrays her ignorance of the natural law, which is the basis for all civil law. The primary purpose of marriage is procreation. Besides this primary purpose, marriage has secondary ends, the mutual material and spiritual assistance to the married parties and protection from the abuse of sex life. But the primary purpose of marriage is essential for its validity to the extent that the right to marital commerce may never be excluded. The marriage contract is valid even when it is certain that there is no possibility of having children (some couples are unable to have children), provided that the primary purpose of marriage, which is procreation, is not excluded. But two people of the same sex are not able to have children. In a homosexual union, procreation is excluded. As we read in the Catechism, homosexual acts are, "..contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life." (CCC, 2357).
Justice Kagan's response to attorney Cooper does not invalidate his argument. It only serves to highlight her paucity of intellect. But then, this is the same Elena Kagan who issued a Socialist call to action to change America
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