Argumentative Paper on Divorce: Statistics, Law, and Effects Argumentative Paper on Divorce: Statistics, Law, and Effects is published

for informational purposes only. The free papers are not written by our writers, they are contributed by users, so we are not responsible for the content of this free sample paper. If you want to buy a quality essay paper on Argumentative Paper on Divorce: Statistics, Law, and Effects at affordable prices please use our essay writing servicesoffered by EssayEmpire. Divorce is the legal dissolution of a marriage, as initiated by one or both partners. The social acceptability of divorce has varied widely across historical periods, religious faiths, and cultures. Whereas the United States has allowed divorce, under certain conditions, since the establishment of the nation, Chile legalized divorce in 2004, and a handful of other countries still prohibit the practice. Because sociological theory traditionally views the family as a basic building block of society, social scientists are interested in many aspects of divorce. Some scholars view the right to divorce as an indicator of women's rights, whereas others attempt to explain the social and cultural causes and consequences of rising divorce rates in the United States and elsewhere. Still other researchers examine families' internal dynamics preceding or following divorce. Accompanying the rise in divorce rates since the mid-20th century have been other changes in family forms, including the rise of single-parent households, an increase in age at first marriage, lower fertility rates and fewer children in families, the rise of cohabitation, and the formation of gay and lesbian families. Accurately estimating the incidence of divorce is difficult because of the varying lengths of marriages, the related challenge of tracking individual marriages over time, and confusion over how to define a couple who divorces and then remarries. Recent U.S. statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics show that there were 7.5 new marriages per 1,000 people and 3.6 divorces per 1,000 people in 2005, giving rise to the conventional wisdom that "half of all marriages end in divorce." These rates have remained relatively constant since the 1960s. Divorce reform was a major concern of the U.S. women's movement of the mid-20th century, commonly referred to as the "second wave" of feminism. Prior to major reforms undertaken by individual states since the 1970s, U.S. laws followed the British legal tradition of finding one partner at fault for the breakup of a marriage. The advent of no-fault divorce laws made divorce a simpler process by allowing reasons such as "irreconcilable differences" as grounds for divorce. Advocates of women's rights pursued expanding the availability of divorce, based on an understanding of marriage as an institution based on gender inequality, in which the woman is the weaker partner and at risk of exploitation, domination, or violence by her husband. Many feminists view marriage as an inherently unequal social institution in which the man has more power than the female because of greater social status, higher income, or greater physical strength. Women have traditionally been responsible for care of the home and children, increasingly in addition to paid work outside the home. Because of these disadvantages, women are more likely than in past generations to seek a divorce or separation. Thus the legal right to break marital bonds emerged as key to women's autonomy and independence. Consequently, divorce has become more socially acceptable in the United States since the women's movement in the 1960s. Before that time, a social stigma was attached to divorced families, especially to divorced women and their children, rather than to the men. Divorced families constituted "broken homes," a phrase still in use today. Illustrating the normalization of divorce are not only higher divorce rates but also the often positive or sympathetic portrayal in popular culture of divorced men and women. Regardless of the causes of divorce, its social and economic consequences are a source of concern for both conservative and liberal politicians, policymakers, and intellectuals. Whereas some studies show strong negative effects on children, other studies argue that differences between children of divorced parents and children of continually married parents are overestimated. Most experts agree that children of divorce tend to have more negative outcomes in terms of educational achievement, delinquency and crime, psychological well-being, teenage pregnancy, and behavior when compared with children of "intact families." In addition, children who experienced parental divorce have higher divorce rates than those whose parents remained married. Experts debate about whether there are gender differences in these long-term effects. Moderating the risks for children from divorced families can be attentive and supportive parenting and low levels of conflict between divorced parents. Despite these protective factors, the period immediately following divorce is stressful for children and can lead to anxiety and depression that typically fade within 2 years. The long-term outcomes of children from divorced families are partially caused by the decrease in standard of living and socioeconomic status after divorce. Households composed of never-married or divorced women and their children are much more likely than two-parent households to live in poverty, a trend sociologists refer to as the "feminization of poverty." The debate over whether the negative outcomes of children of divorce stem from family structure (i.e., living in a home with one rather than two parents) or poverty is far from settled. Some scholars argue that poverty leads to divorce as well as increasing the likelihood of negative outcomes for children. Others claim that it is the absence of a father in the home that leads to both poverty and children's problems. Still other scholars of family life state that it is increasingly difficult for men, especially working-class and minority men, to fulfill the socially expected role of breadwinner. Lack of economic

opportunities may thus cause men to leave marriages to which they feel they are not contributing financially. In terms of the effects of divorce, both popular and academic discussions tend to emphasize either culture or economics. Aside from the question of the economic effects of divorce, the termination of a legal marriage generally involves some process of negotiation over the married couple's finances. Interactions between husbands and wives can become conflictual about dividing up the couple's assets and determining whether spousal support (referred to as alimony in the past) or child support will be required. Due to assumptions about gender roles and the actual gendered division of labor among married couples, the husband has typically been the partner required to pay alimony and child support to compensate for the family's expected drop in income after divorce. With many women employed and possibly the higher-earning partner, the granting of spousal support (alimony) does not always occur and is not always in the direction of husband to wife, although this is still a common occurrence. Child support enforcement varies from state to state. Failure of divorced fathers to pay child support is one of the reasons for high poverty rates in families composed of divorced women and their children. Custody of children is often another point of conflict during the process of divorce. As with alimony and child support, assumptions about gender roles have been inherent in judges' decisions over which partner legally becomes the primary parent after a divorce. Because most cultures recognize the woman as the primary parent who takes on most of the parenting responsibilities (caring for children's emotional and physical needs), the courts typically favor mothers as custodial parents. The famous Oscar-winning film Kramer vs. Kramer of 1979 dramatized this tendency: In the film, the mother was awarded full custody although the father had shown himself to be an exemplary and caring father. Although mothers are more likely to obtain custody, U.S. courts also favor fathers' involvement in children's lives and will generally allow fathers the right to visit and interact with their child or children on a regular basis. Despite the rights of fathers to visit their children, only about one quarter of fathers have regular contact with their children after divorce. One result of the increase in divorce rates is the increase in the rates of formation of stepfamilies. A stepfamily is made up of a married couple with one or both partners having children from a previous marriage or relationship. Although stepfamilies can form after the death of one partner's spouse, most stepfamilies are the result of a previous divorce. Also, the mother with custody of her children generally remarries, meaning that most step-parents living with stepchildren are men (stepfathers). Step-parents not residing with children tend to be stepmothers. Stepfamilies are more likely to end in divorce than are first marriages, which means that the children in these families may experience multiple divorces in their lives, an experience that some scholars argue can affect their educational and social outcomes. In most states, step-parents who do not legally adopt their stepchildren do not have special rights, privileges, or responsibilities toward the children. Adoption of stepchildren is only possible if the nonresident parent has died or given up his or her parental rights. Despite this fact, stepchildren are often eligible for Social Security or military benefits through their step-parents.

Bibliography: 1) Hackstaff, Karla B. 1999. Marriage in a Culture of Divorce. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 2) Mason, Mary Ann and Steven Sugarman, eds. 2003. All Our Families: New Policies for a New Century. New York: Oxford University Press. 3) Popenoe, David, Jean Bethke Elshtain, and David Blankenhorn, eds. 1996. Promises to Keep: Decline and Renewal of Marriage in America. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 4) Yalom, Margaret and Laura L. Cartensen. 2002. Inside the American Couple: New Thinking/New Challenges. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Free essays are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can order a term paper, research paper or custom essay on Argumentative Paper on Divorce: Statistics, Law, and Effects at our site which offers professional essay writing services. Get your high quality custom paper at affordable price. EssayEmpire is the best solution for those who seek help in essay writing related to Argumentative Paper on Divorce: Statistics, Law, and Effects and other relevant topics.

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Cloning of Human Beings

This paper argues that the cloning of human beings should be outlawed worldwide.
750 words (approx. 3 pages) | 4 sources | MLA | 2008 | Published on: 2008/04/11

Paper Summary:
In this article, the writer notes that cloning offers the prospect of scientists being able to create a new individual genetically identical to another person. The writer points out that the science to do this has almost been perfected. The writer notes that some people believe that cloning technology should be vigorously developed, as it offers an enormous potential to cure diseases and so reduce human suffering. However, this essay argues that this potential benefit is outweighed by the massive potential ethical problems. Therefore, it is argued that cloning of human beings should be outlawed worldwide.

From the Paper:

"One compelling reason to ban cloning is with regard to the human rights of potential cloned beings. Things that are manufactured are usually, by definition, property, and so do not have human rights. Thus, if a company were to clone human beings, it could possibly have the power to use these people as "spare parts" for rich clients. This potential ethical minefield was explored in the recent film, The Island. In this film, rich people have clones made from their DNA, and "store" them in an underground facility. The clones have no idea they are clones - they think they are the survivors of a nuclear holocaust, kept confined for their own safety. When their "owners" become sick or are injured, the clones are simply killed to provide spare parts. The clones are even used for breeding purposes. In this way, a female customer of the clone company can "give birth" to her own genetic offspring without the inconvenience of being pregnant."

Sample of Sources Used:

y y Bay, Michael. (Director). The Island. Dream Works Pictures, 2005. Holm, Soren. "A Life in the Shadow: One Reason Why we Should not Clone Humans." In Ruse, Michael and Sheppard, Aryne. Cloning: Responsible Science or Technomadness? New York: Prometheus Books, 2001. Kass, Leon A. "The Wisdom of Repugnance." In Ruse, Michael and Sheppard, Aryne. Cloning: Responsible Science or Technomadness? New York: Prometheus Books, 2001. National Bioethics Advisory Commission. "Cloning Human Beings." 1997. Retrieved from URL: http://www.georgetown.edu/research/nrcbl/nbac/pubs/cloning1/cloning.pdf

y y

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UP School Of Economics : Population, Poverty, Politics and the Reproductive Health Bill
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By: Ernesto M. Pernia, Stella Alabastro-Quimbo, Maria Joy V. Abrenica, Ruperto P. Alonzo, Agustin L. Arcenas, Arsenio M. Balisacan, Dante B. Canlas, Joseph J. Capuno, Ramon L. Clarete, Rolando A. Danao, Emmanuel S. de Dios, Aleli dela Paz-Kraft, Benjamin E. Diokno, Emmanuel F. Esguerra, Raul V. Fabella, Maria Socorro Gochoco-Bautista, Teresa J. Ho, Dennis Claire S. Mapa, Felipe M. Medalla, Maria Nimfa F. Mendoza, Solita C. Monsod, Toby Melissa C. Monsod, Fidelina Natividad-Carlos, Cayetano W. Paderanga, Gerardo P. Sicat, Orville C. Solon, Edita A. Tan, and Gwendolyn R. Tecson. University of the Philippines SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS 11August 2008

Population, Poverty, Politicsand the Reproductive Health Bill1 The population issue has long been dead and buried in developed and most developing countries, including historically Catholic countries. That it continues to be debated heatedly in our country merely testifies to the lack of progress in policy and action. The Catholic Church hierarchy has maintained its traditional stance against modern family planning (FP) methods, particularly modern (also referred to as artificial) contraceptives. On the other hand, the State acknowledges the difficulties posed for development by rapid population growth, especially among the poorest Filipinos. But it has been immobilized from effectively addressing the issue by the Catholic hierarchys hard-line stance, as well as the tendency of some politicians to cater to the demands of well-organised and impassioned singleissue groups for the sake of expediency. Caught between a hard Church and a soft State are the overwhelming majority of Filipinos who affirm the importance of helping women and couples control the size of their families and the need for government to give budgetary support for modern FP methods. Renewed impetus to the debate has been given by the public and political interest in the pending bill (HB No. 17) on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development (RH Bill, for short). Unfortunately, serious discussion has been hampered by the lack of reliable information and the proclivity of some parties in the debate to use epithets that label the bill as pro-abortion, antilife, and immoral. There are a few aspects of the bill to which some groups have expressed strong objections, which we can understand. Among these are whether the State should subsidize family planning by the unmarried; whether reproductive health and sex education in public schools should be compulsory, and at what grade-level it should start. Moreover, the notion of two children being the ideal family size (Section 13 of the RH Bill) may be difficult to defend. But the main thrust of the bill enabl(ing) couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children and to have the information and means to carry out their decisions is something we strongly and unequivocally support. In what follows, we explain why. The real score on population and poverty First, the experience from across Asia indicates that a population policy cum government-funded FP program has been a critical complement to sound economic policy and poverty reduction. Moreover, the weaker is the states ability to tax and mobilize resources (including spending on the right priorities), the greater the negative impact on economic development of a rapidly growing population,

which in every developing country is largely accounted for by the least urbanized, least educated, and poorest segments of the population. Second, at the micro level, family size is closely associated with poverty incidence, as consistently borne out by household survey data over time. In short, poor families are heavily burdened when they end up with more children than they themselves desire. The latest data show that poverty incidence is less than 10% for a family with one child; but it rises steadily with the number of children to 57% for a family with nine or more children (NDHS 2003). Larger families also make less investments in human capital per child investments that are crucial in breaking the chain of intergenerational poverty. Average annual spending on education per student falls from P5,558 for a one-child family to P682 for a family with nine or more children, and average health spending per capita drops correspondingly from P1,700 to P150 (FIES 2003). Third, there is evidence that the poor prefer smaller families, except that they are unable to achieve their preference. On the average, among the poorest 10% of women of reproductive age, 44% of pregnancies are unwanted (FPS 2006). Unwanted births represent a considerable unmet need2 for family planning services. Among the poorest families, 22% of married women of reproductive age express a desire to avoid pregnancies but are still not using any family planning method (FPS 2006). Contraceptive use remains extremely low among poor couples because they lack information about and access to them. For instance, among the poorest 20% of women, over half do not use any method of family planning whatsoever, while less than a third use modern methods (FPS 2006). Among the poorest women who want to avoid pregnancy, at least 41% do not use any contraceptive method because they lack information.3 Fourth, lack of access to contraception has important health implications. Maternal mortality is currently a high 162 per 100,000 live births and is unlikely to fall to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of 52 by 2015. Having too many and too closely-spaced children raises the risk of illness and premature deaths (for mother and child alike). Ten women die daily owing to pregnancy and causes associated with childbirth (NDHS 2003). Moreover, many unwanted pregnancies result in induced and illegal abortions, numbering nearly half a million annually, as estimated from reported cases in 2000 (Juarez et al. 2005). Fifth, the health risks associated with mistimed and unwanted pregnancies are higher for adolescent mothers, as they are more likely to have complications during labor (FPS 2006). Almost a fourth of uneducated teenagers have already begun childbearing compared with only three percent of those who have attended college or higher (FPS 2006). 2 Unmet need for family planning refers to the proportion of currently married women who are not using any method of family planning but do not want any more children or prefer to space births. 3 The fact that only three percent of the poorest complained of the cost of contraceptives and inconvenience of use is itself alarming it implies that many of them are not even aware of the availability of contraceptives from either public or private sources. Sixth, there are unintended social costs (negative externalities) arising from mistimed and unplanned pregnancies. Parents who are able to space their children and achieve their desired number are also more likely to fully bear the cost of raising and educating them. By contrast, poor families having more children than desired are constrained to rely more on public education and health services and other publicly provided goods and services. In short, in a situation where government is already hard pressed in financing even the most basic items of public spending, having no national population policy is tantamount to burying ones head in the sand.4

Moreover, women who have children sooner than planned are rarely in the best of health during pregnancy and are more likely to seek medical treatment. And poor women are more likely to utilize public rather than private health care facilities. Public education and health facilities are already congested and decongesting them would entail increased taxation. Providing facilities for planning and spacing pregnancies is one way of alleviating the tax burden. Teen pregnancies also impose a social cost. Since teen mothers are more likely to drop out of school, they are also less able to internalize the cost of rearing their children and more likely to shift this burden to the government. Seventh, ensuring access to the full range of modern (artificial) FP methods cum appropriate information raises the success rate of achieving the desired family size. Limiting FP options to natural family planning (NFP) methods only fails to address the private and social costs of mistimed and unwanted pregnancies. NFP methods which include the basal body temperature method, the cervical mucus or ovulation method, the calendar method and the sympto-thermal method have a theoretical or perfect-use failure rate ranging from 2% to 9% depending on the specific method. But perfect use is hardly achieved, so that NFP methods typically have 24% failure rates (Ponzetti and Hoefler 1988) meaning that if 100 women adopt NFP, 24 of them would typically become pregnant in a year. Data from 1973 to 2006 highlight the importance of full information and access to the whole range of modern methods, rather than NFP only. The chart (shown after the References) shows a close association between the reduction in the average number of children a woman bears, use of modern methods and, to some extent, reduced utilization of traditional methods. The RH Bill addresses both the private and social costs of uninformed, unplanned and unprotected reproductive health behaviour. A notable weakness of the bill, however, is that it fails to explicitly identify the poor and the uneducated as its target population, which could have implications for the cost-effectiveness of the program. Moreover, while the integration of education on sexual health and rights in the curriculum of public and private schools flows naturally out of what we observe on the ground, there could be logistical, design, and private-rights issues that need to be sorted out. For instance, parents who for religious reasons believe that their children should not go through the school systems education in sexual and reproductive health should be given the room to opt out. Another weakness of the bill is that it reduces the autonomy of local governments by obliging them to spend on reproductive health care services half of the 20-percent of the IRA allotted

4 Spending on social services has chronically suffered, owing largely to poor revenue collection. Governments tax collection now amounts to only 14% of GNP, even including the expanded and increased VAT, which many who oppose the RH Bill also want scrapped. Recent reports that 17 % of elementary school-age children are not in school a figure up from 10 % just ten years ago is depressing, indeed.

to local development projects (Section 9 of the RH Bill). If reproductive health is really high on the national governments priorities, the funding must come from the national government itself. And if national government wants LGUs to spend more on reproductive health, it should give incentives for them to do so, rather than tell them how much to spend. Nevertheless, these and other shortcomings of the bill are not fundamental and should be dealt with through the proper amendments. But all things considered, the RH Bill, even if it becomes law in its entirety, is definitely better than the status quo.

Conceptual and factual distortions The current debate on the population issue has become unnecessarily muddled by conceptual and factual distortions. Some groups, including the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and other pro-life groups, vehemently oppose the RH Bill because they claim that it is pro-abortion and is anti-life. A studious reading of the bill, however, shows that these are clearly erroneous claims. In the first place, there is an obvious definitional and scientific difference between contraception, which occurs before conception, and abortion, which occurs after5. Second, the bills main thrust is to promote full information on, and provide access to and choice from among the whole range of traditional, modern, and natural family planning methods for contraception. The bill is, in fact, unequivocally and explicitly against abortion thus, abortion shall remain penalized under the Revised Penal Code and relevant jurisprudence (Pangalangan 2008). Some objectors to the RH Bill have further argued that the bill will only lead to promiscuity, the breakup of families, decay of moral values, and hedonism. But this is pure ideological conjecture an assertion sans logic and empirical basis. Gratis asseritur, gratis negatur. The current administration has sadly also contributed to the confusion. President Gloria MacapagalArroyo at the General Assembly of the United Nations in its 60th session on 15 September 2005 asserted that natural family planning technology was found effective compared to artificial contraceptives by the World Health Organization. She added that: the Population Council of New York has found that artificial contraception contributes only 2.0% to the decline of birth rates while the combination of improving the economic condition of the family, urbanization, and breastfeeding contributes 98%. When asked for their reactions, however, both the WHO and the Population Council categorically disavowed President Arroyos statements. More misinformation was contained in the presidents most recent SONA (28 July 2008). She asserted that her policy of natural family planning (NFP) combined with female education has reduced population growth to 2.04% during her administration compared with 2.36% when artificial birth control techniques were pushed. At best, the presidents statement was disingenuous, since it is wellknown that more educated females are more likely to use modern (artificial) contraceptive methods. On the other hand, how could the use of modern-NFP have contributed to the fall in population growth when its use rate among married women of reproductive age (15-49) actually dropped from 0.5% to 0.3% in 2001-2006? By contrast, their use of modern (artificial) contraceptives rose from 33 % to 36 % 5 Even here, as in the case of the so-called morning-after pill, there are many opinions as to whether any intervention made shortly after sexual intercourse can be considered abortion.

during the same period. This actually implies that it was modern (artificial) contraceptive use that rose as women became more educated, and thus was more likely to be associated with the decline in the population growth rate. Conclusion Debate is always healthy: religious and other groups are perfectly free to espouse their own views and opinions. The line must be drawn, however, at that point where deliberate efforts are made to misinform and distort the true and well-meaning provisions of the RH Bill. An unambiguous and consistent national population policy is long overdue in our country (UPSE 2004). It is an integral part of development and poverty reduction strategy. Once passed, the RH Bill can be a good instrument of national population policy.

We, therefore, strongly support the RH Bill and urge the national leadership to be fully and unequivocally behind it. Espousing natural family planning only is a position inconsistent with the spirit and letter of the bill and reflects a lack of seriousness in pursuing long-term economic development and poverty reduction. It is in this spirit of debate that we express our own opinion. We say based on serious evidence that the RH Bill is pro-poor and authentically pro-life and pro-family.

References Juarez, Fatima, J. Cabigon, S. Singh, and R. Hussain. 2005. The incidence of induced abortion in the Philippines: Current levels and recent trends, International Family Planning Perspectives, Vol. 31, No. 3 (September), pp. 140-149.

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