Is legislating morality a good thing?

Question

Speaking primarily about abortion and gay marriage, but there are other issues as well. Will outlawing abortions prevent them from happening? Will making gay marriage illegal reduce the number of gays living together?

Answer 1

No, definately bad.

The gov't's job is to protect us from things we cannot protect ourselves from, not force the morals of others onto us.

Outlawing abortion just makes dangerous back alley abortions more common. Yes, it stops some, but it also takes away all regulation for the people that still have them.

Outlawing gay marriage in no way affects happy gay couples directly (honestly its just a piece of gov't paper). What it does do is give the biggots an easier time mistreating them as the gov't makes it clear that disapprove of the life style. It is also a huge sign of disrespect to these people saying that their love is not as good as if they loved a woman.

Your rights should stop where another person's rights start, not where another person starts to get uncomfortable. What I do in my house is my business, I dont want you to know about it anymore than I want to know whats going on in yours.
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Pfo--murder and stealing are not restricted on purely moral grounds. They are outlawed based upon your rights being taken away by another person. Purely morality based laws are nonesensical to huge portions of the population, but the laws you cite are only nonesensical to people who are fundamentally selfish to the point that they are willing to hurt others.

Answer 2

Legislating morality is necessary. Laws concerning murder legislate morality. We could, for example, redefine murder laws to allow for killing if you could prove the person you are killing killed someone. That's just an example, but yes, most laws legislate morality. Stealing is a crime, what if it wasn't? What is the law was, if you don't get caught stealing it's OK?

Outlawing abortion won't stop it, if not done carefully it can actually make it much worse. This is why politicians don't jump to do it even if they want to, the aftermath would see the decision to outlaw abortion reversed. It would be like prohibition, it would need to be done carefully.

Similarly, outlawing gay marriage won't stop gays getting together and living married lifestyles (without being recognized as a union).

Answer 3

Legislating morality can be difficult, but it sure as heck is not unusual nor is it prohibited (by the Constitution, that is).

Will banning abortion prevent abortions from ever occurring? Of course not. But it will prevent many from happening.

Will gays stop living together if the ban on gay marriage stays in place? Of course not. But I reckon that virtually every one of the voters and politicians who have voted in favor of banning gay marriage have done so because they don't want homosexuality to be treated as the "equal" of homosexuality.

Thumbs up for truthisback. I've said the same thing before.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AhO2FKdpjptZ76axMC1pziDty6IX?qid=20070510065631AAOlL5N&show=7#profile-info-AA10908124

That is, I've said the same thing that he did about people not wanting to allow other people's legislated morality. I disagree with truthisback about not having any legislated morality.

Answer 4

Nope, people will do what they want to, whether the government tells them they can or cannot. There were back room abortions before they were illegal. Gays have been living together without the benefit of marriage for a long time. Legislating morality, in my mind, is completely against what philosophy's our country was founded on.

Answer 5

Morality is the only thing that is legislated .

Some one decides that what someone else is doing is wrong and works to stop them .

From planting pungent smelling plants next to your property to collecting Junk in your yard or decorating it with 5000 gnomes it seems some people can not accept others individuality and want conformity .
Condo associations and neighborhood associations and limited use communities are an example of just how many choices are limited and how much of your freedom is perceived rather then real .

Try marching in a public park with 5000 participants without receiving a permit .

We legislate a lot in the name of what is and is not correct for people to do .

I am sure if we watched a couple of obese individuals having sex we would outlaw that also .

Answer 6

Morality is legislated all the time. Drugs are illegal. Beating people up or taking their lives is too. But I bet you can find a lot of people who wish these weren't. Now the two issues you mentioned are either legal or tolerated. I don't see people going to jail for them. It doesn't matter if making something illegal prevents it from happening. It certainly will deter it. That's all you can ask.

Answer 7

No. There will always be someone who thinks that something another human being does is immoral. Where do you draw the line.

Example-- I was raised to believe that smoking, alchohol, and gambling were sins. As a child I believed that. Now as a somewhat sane and rational adult, I know better. I still don't do any of those things, but not because of moral issues.

Another example, At one time, I actually believed in sex only after marriage. Abstinence...but of course abstinence is easy when you don't have any other opportunities!!! And once I got to college and found my wife...well abstinence...yeah that's right...it got tossed right out the window.

Just remember folks there will always be someone with more virtue and self-righteous furor than you.

We can't all live like the Amish...and maybe that's a good thing.

Answer 8

Wow, I just read an answer about Liberals making up the statement "You can't legislate morality".
As an old timer (60+) I can tell you that Conservatives were using that argument against Civil Rights Legislation in the 50's and 60's. Barry Goldwater, for one, had it in a lot of campaign literature.
I don't know who exactly coined the phrase, but I can tell you all that to attribute it to todays Liberals is ignorant.

Answer 9

It's a bad thing - but that applies to ALL morality.

The welfare state is forced charity and is also an example of legislating morality.

Its supporters aren't against legislating morality - they just want it to be THEIR morality.

It's really very simple - doing something TO someone else that that someone doesn't want done to them goes BEYOND morality. It is objectively wrong, not just subjectively wrong to some people. The fact that it is also immoral to some, subjectively, doesn't mean that laws against theft are "legislating morality" - they're protecting liberty.

The function of government is to protect liberty, not enforce morality.

Answer 10

Making theft and murder illegal has stopped those crimes either. Should we not have laws for them? Are theft, murder,etc. not moral issues? Law , in general, is a form of moral or ethical code. It is ludicrous to think otherwise. Freedom without the bounds of morality is anarchy.