Should polygamy be legal?

Polygamy is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. Worldwide, different societies variously encourage, accept or outlaw polygamy. So is it unethical? Should it be legal?

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  •   Argument for Everyone should be free to do anything that doesn't harm others. If it is a free choice between the parties involved, marrying multiple people doesn't harm others and should be allowed.
  •   Argument against When polygamy is allowed, polygyny (one man, many women) becomes more common than polyandry (one woman, many men), so in practice a polygamous society leads to a polygynous society, which violates the dignity of women.
    •   Objection Polyandry could also violate the dignity of women through the mechanism of spousal abuse. Monogamy has been shown to violate the dignity of women in some circumstances too[citation needed]. Therefore, this is an argument against certain kinds of cultures, independent of the parity of unions, not against polygamy in the most general sense.
  •   Argument against Polygamy leads to some people having no spouses because some have more than one, which generates resentment and destabilizes society.
    •   Objection There's also some people with a lot of money and others with none, which generates resentment and destabilizes society, but (in liberal economies) we don't forbid people from having a lot of money just because other people can't handle it.
      •   Objection There are proposals to do just that, some implemented, so it is an inapt analogy.
    •   Objection In monogamous society there are also people with only one spouse while others without, and that doesn't cause particular resentment or social instability.
  •   Argument against Polygamy implies that each spouse gets only a fraction of the time, attention, resources and love of their partner.
    •   Objection This is true for all relationships. People have multiple family members, multiple friends, coworkers, etc. that they split time with. In these cases, having more members within a group is typically seen as a positive because it creates diversity.
  •   Argument against If a person can marry as many people as they like this will render marriage meaningless. Every adult person could in theory be married to every other adult person infinitely.
    •   Objection A person can engage in sexual relationships with as many people as they like, but not everyone is constantly having sex with everyone else.

See also

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