Public Discourse

I came across two great articles from Public Discourse: Ethics, Law, and the Common Good that I thought was worth sharing.

Austin R. Nimocks, a Senior Legal Counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, wrote an article about the Defense of Marriage Act. He explains why the state should support the Act.

Here is an excerpt:

What DOMA addresses is not just a law or creature of statute, but a social institution that has universally crossed all political, religious, sociological, geographical, and historical lines. As the philosopher and self-described atheist Bertrand Russell wrote, “But for children, there would be no need of any institution concerned with sex.” He continued, “it is through children alone that sexual relations become of importance to society, and worthy to be taken cognizance of by a legal institution.” Renowned anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss observed that “the family—based on a union, more or less durable, but socially approved, of two individuals of opposite sexes who establish a household and bear and raise children—appears to be a practically universal phenomenon, present in every type of society.”

You can read the whole article here.

Public Discourse has another article written by Helen Alvaré, an associate professor at George Mason University School of Law. Alvaré opposes the new health-insurance plans that requires contraception to be included in preventive care services for women.

Here is an excerpt:

The greatest attack on women’s freedom is last week’s recommendation by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that the new health care law should mandate “the full range of FDA-approved contraceptive methods [and] sterilization procedures” as “preventive services.” This means that every health insurance plan must provide these services without co-pays or deductibles. “Grandfathered” employer plans are exempted, but these lose their “grandfathered” status if the plans are significantly changed; HHS estimates that by 2013, about 88 million Americans’ preventive services coverage will be affected by federal decisions.

You can read the whole article here.