Ethical Dilemma: Child Bride
ETHICAL DILEMA: CHILD BRIDE
Part I: Main argument
2 seconds, every 2 seconds a girl is forced into marriage.1
Don’t you know yearly marriage often results in abusive and even deadly consequences?
According to the Universal Declaration of Human right, marriage should be « entered only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses’, however where one of the parties is getting married is under 18, consent cannot always be assumed to be ‘free and full’ » since the girl doesn’t have the full maturity and capacity to act. 2
Child bride suffer violence, abusive and forced sexual relationship 3
This forced sexual intercourse lead to premature pregnancy that child bride are not physically nor emotionally ready to bear. Pregnancy related deaths are the leading cause of mortality of 15 to 19 year old girls,4 and girls age 15 years old or under are five times more likely to die than those over their 205
Practice of child marriage is not exclusive to any particular religion or society. The legal framework of Japan, Russia Italy & United Kingdom authorizes a girl to get married at the age of 16 with parental consent, but her consent is not required. Worse some countries’ laws such as Gambia, Lesotho, Sierra Leone and Yemen have no minimum age requirement for marriage.6
Picture you a girl a 8 year old girl. It could be you sister, you niece, or even your daughter. You want this little girl to live free from fear, & safe from violence. But imagine she got now raped by a man 5time her age and died from internal injuries. This might be fictional, but this was the real case of an innocent 8-year-old Yemeni girl who died on her wedding night from forced sexual intercourse with a 40 year old men.7 What about her right to a live a life free from violence?
Part II: Three counterargument
The person who argues for child marriage would bring this 3 argument:
First of all, where poverty is acute, parent marry their daughter to lessen
Part I: Main argument
2 seconds, every 2 seconds a girl is forced into marriage.1
Don’t you know yearly marriage often results in abusive and even deadly consequences?
According to the Universal Declaration of Human right, marriage should be « entered only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses’, however where one of the parties is getting married is under 18, consent cannot always be assumed to be ‘free and full’ » since the girl doesn’t have the full maturity and capacity to act. 2
Child bride suffer violence, abusive and forced sexual relationship 3
This forced sexual intercourse lead to premature pregnancy that child bride are not physically nor emotionally ready to bear. Pregnancy related deaths are the leading cause of mortality of 15 to 19 year old girls,4 and girls age 15 years old or under are five times more likely to die than those over their 205
Practice of child marriage is not exclusive to any particular religion or society. The legal framework of Japan, Russia Italy & United Kingdom authorizes a girl to get married at the age of 16 with parental consent, but her consent is not required. Worse some countries’ laws such as Gambia, Lesotho, Sierra Leone and Yemen have no minimum age requirement for marriage.6
Picture you a girl a 8 year old girl. It could be you sister, you niece, or even your daughter. You want this little girl to live free from fear, & safe from violence. But imagine she got now raped by a man 5time her age and died from internal injuries. This might be fictional, but this was the real case of an innocent 8-year-old Yemeni girl who died on her wedding night from forced sexual intercourse with a 40 year old men.7 What about her right to a live a life free from violence?
Part II: Three counterargument
The person who argues for child marriage would bring this 3 argument:
First of all, where poverty is acute, parent marry their daughter to lessen
Bibliography: Influenceatwork. (2012) Science of Persuasion. [Online] [Accessed on 18th November 2013] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFdCzN7RYbw Plan International Planned Parenthood Federation. (2012) Ending child marriage A guide for global policy action International Planned Parenthood Federation. (2012) Ending child marriage A guide for global policy action Forward. (1998). Child Marriage. [Online] [Accessed on 20th November 2013] http://www.forwarduk.org.uk/key-issues/child-marriage L.Lowen