A marriage that expires? Cannot exist!

Article By: Luke Zammit

expire: Cease to be valid, typically after a fixed period of time

Far from vows, contracts, ceremonies and celebrations, the true core of marriage stands upon the relationship between the spouses, which in turn is built upon communication and understanding between the two.

This means that a marriage may only come to an end if and when one or both spouses stops struggling to communicate and/or understand each other; basically, a marriage breaks down if you do not work at it. Therefore, the following obvious question arises: will a happily married couple living in a society where the option of divorce is available to all opt to break it all up simply because they have that choice?

As in any kind of relationship, problems tend to arise and marriage is no exception. Divorce is an option which should be available for those whose marital difficulties have reached a point beyond return. The introduction of responsible divorce legislation will therefore address such cases only if anyone chooses to do so.

I firmly stand by the assertion that communication and understanding are key factors for a successful marriage. Therefore once these factors are interrupted, problems are hardly avoidable and likely to give rise to marital breakdowns. At this stage another question arises: which makes more sense – to statistically have many married couples or to have realistically happily married couples?

Moreover one cannot forget about the true significance of a democratic society: Majority rules, minority rights!