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Document Details :

Title: The Surplus Value of Marriage
Author(s): MORGAN, Patricia
Journal: Marriage, Families & Spirituality
Volume: 9    Issue: 1   Date: Spring 2003   
Pages: 91-93
DOI: 10.2143/INT.9.1.2004419

Abstract :
It is obvious that the survival of any society depends upon reproduction, or the quantity and quality of its children. If any value or aim could be ascribed to biology or evolution, then the ultimate function of life would be indefinite continuance. As cultural beings we need children to ensure the survival of the products of all and every lifetime. Attachment to a future, or to someone or something in the future, and beyond ourselves, is “love over time”. It involves the three great ethical concerns seen to arise in the family: welfare, or the care of the dependent; education, or the handing on of accumulated wisdom to a new generation; and a concern with the fate of the world outside our own lifetime.

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