Is it worth it? the economics of same-sex marriage

The institution of marriage must be fundamentally redefined to accommodate same sex couples, says a Canadian economist.
Douglas W. Allen
Monday, 2 January 2012

Excerpt:
MercatorNet: How can changing the law to accommodate the demands of same-sex couples possibly harm heterosexual marriages?

Let's take one example. Historically the definition of parent has been "natural parent" which has meant "biological parent." There can only be two natural parents, and someone who is the biological parent has been given an entire set of rights and responsibilities. These rights and responsibilities have been designed to manage the problems that arise in procreation. Societies have wanted parents to have the proper incentives to remain married and to look after their offspring. It has always been a serious matter to alter these rights and responsibilities.

Well, natural parenthood makes no sense when you introduce same sex marriage, because if there are children one of the spouses is not biologically connected. In jurisdictions that have same sex marriage there is always some type of redefinition to accommodate this. In Canada we created a concept called "legal parent." In British Columbia this has meant a birth certificate asks for the mother's name and the "co-parent's" name. The concept of "father" has been reduced. More significantly, there can be more than two legal parents. There have been a host of legal cases involving divorce where biology has no standing and non-biological natural parents have been given custody. This is a dramatic shift in the rights of parents, and affects the way parents behave. The impacts of these are yet to be fully seen. the rest