Polygamy is an acceptable practise in the modern world

Thank you for your response.Now, you say that "the continual discrimination of a person's right to choose to marry more than one woman is an injustice in society." However again I want to know where the line is drawn. If we are discussing marriage desires then under this logic is it not fair to assume that if a man of 50 wants to marry a girl of 10 then it should be allowed or else it is discriminating against marriage desires. If this was the case it would be absolutely shunned and not allowed under any circumstances. So you see when it comes to marriage desires there has to be a line drawn for whatever moral, social reasons there may be etc. Again I feel that polygamy steps over this line and have explained my reasons against it. I would also like to add that there is absolutely no right that allows a person to choose to marry more than one woman. It may be part of some cultures but there is no constitutional right on it. Therefore when we talk about polygamy we are just talking about it on account of people's desires, not entitled rights. I think this weakens the argument for polygamy immensely.Again you must have missed my argument regarding your point that it is hypocritical to deny a human being the right to marry two or more spouses if we are allowed to change marriage based on desire e.g. gay marriages. Again I mussed reiterate the point of stepping over the line. If we are to allow all marriage desires (freedom of choice as you say) then should we allow men to marry little girls? or people to marry animals? etc. It's all well and good to say that marriage desires should be fulfilled however where do we place the boundaries? I am only arguing the points of marrying little girls and animals because you are talking about individuality and personal choice as an argument for polygamy. You contradict yourself by first starting off arguing that polygamy should be accepted because it coincides with the right of "freedom of choice" but then switch to the argument that polygamy should be accepted because it "does not create a situation where people would be allowed to so drastically change the definition of marriage". You are either for one of the other as both arguments contradict each other. For example, you say that we of course should not allow marriage to underage girls allowed but is this not denying your whole concept on the freedom of choice? I am merely saying how I don't think this argument is a good one for polygamy as many other horrific marriage scenarios can fit under freedom of choice that people would never dream of allowing. The same goes for the argument that polygamy should be accepted because it doesn't drastically chance the definition of marriage. Many horrific marriage scenarios can also not too drastically change the definition of marriage. For exampleDefinition Of Marriage: The state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law (2) : the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage(http://www.merriam-webster.com...)Scenario: The marriage of a grown man between an underage girl does not really alter the definition of marriage if there is consent for example, so should this be accepted to then?My opponent argues that "why should we deny consenting adults an act which does not harm any the parties concerned".I have briefly gone over the harms of polygamy however I will now go into further detail.Harms of Polygamy (why it shouldn't be accepted)Polygamy harms WomenJealousy and competition between women,Real life cases:1. "Likewise, she is forced now to compete for his affections for the rest of her life, thereby immersing in her an unnatural competition for the man who has already pledged himself to her."Source: (http://www.huffingtonpost.com...)2. "His biggest headache, he said, stems from jealousy among the wives, the first of whom he married out of love. 'My rule is to behave equally toward all of my wives,' he said. 'But the first wife was very, very jealous when the second wife came. When the third arrived, the first two created an alliance against her. So I have to be a good diplomat.'"Source: (http://www.nytimes.com...)3. "There was tremendous competition between the wives, wasn't there? Oh, tremendous. We were all required to live in the same home, and there's just a lot of dominance that goes on about who has the right to rule. And, of course, the woman who has the most favor with her husband is going to rule over the other wives and their kids."Source: http://content.time.com...Polygamy harms childrenPolygamous fathers can't give their children adequate attention,Real life case: "He also has trouble keeping track of his children. He recently saw two boys fighting in the street and told them they would bring shame on their families. 'Do you not recognize me?' one replied. 'I am your son.'"Source: (http://www.nytimes.com...)Polygamy harms familiesPolygamous families are complicated and unstable "Polyamory is a cover-all term for a bewildering variety of relationship forms--everything from open marriage, to bisexual triads, to a man with multiple women, to a woman with multiple men, to large sexual groups, and many more. The "rules" governing these arrangements are entirely flexible. There might be three "primary" partners who actually live together, and several additional "secondary" partners (collectively shared or not) to whom the three "primaries" are less committed. The levels of commitment, and the range of partnership and mutual involvement, are subject to continual change and renegotiation. Open and honest communication is the only rule. Polyamorists emphasize that multi partner unions take intense and constant work. Yet this need for a higher level of monitoring and negotiation only highlights the forces pushing against stability."Source: Stanley Kurtz. "Polygamy Versus Democracy. You can't have both." The Weekly Standard. June 5th, 2006 Polygamy harms menLeaves some men with no women to marry: "Other things being equal (and, to a good first approximation, they are), when one man marries two women, some other man marries no woman. When one man marries three women, two other men don't marry. When one man marries four women, three other men don't marry."Source: (http://reason.com...)These are some of the harms of Polygamy and therefore why I feel it should not be accepted in the modern world. Now, I was talking about cheating being shunned because you used the fact that cheating goes on all the time as a reason to allow polygamy.I countered this by questioning how that is a good argument for polygamy ( a form of cheating) when cheating is already greatly shunned.Now my round 3 arguments. I have just reiterated and furthered most of these points however I will go through them just incase I missed out on some.1. " If a woman doesn't get along with her husband, they don't have to work it out, the man can just turn to his other wife (wives) and ignore her. She has no choice but to be submissive and helpless. This is the essence of the master and slave relationship."I have gone into further detail on this point in this round.2. "Polygamy produces excess men. For every man who marries 4 women, three men can't find a wife. They will never have kids or buy a house or need to work hard and contribute to the economy. In countries where it is practiced, they tend to turn to gangs and rebellions"I have gone into further detail on this point in this round. 3. "Only the most wealthy man can afford it, but many others will take on too many wives and children and then expect the government to take care of them. This leads to major family crisis and money issues. For example, The FLDS polygamous Mormon sect took in millions in government money to keep going". This argument is not invalid. As I said, Polygamy is MAINLY practiced in backwards countries where men are seen as the only breadwinners in society, (http://en.wikipedia.org...) 4. "With polygamy wives have to compete for affection, time, food, and essentials for their own children. Men have little interest in being the referee. They often turn the money over to one wife and all others have to beg for items. They all want the best for their own kids at the expense of the other kids. Inequality among wives and children is inevitable."Again this is totally valid as the same reason for number 3. 5. "Polygamy is mainly practiced in backwards countries (http://en.wikipedia.org.........). No one would want to move to one of these places. It only works when women's rights are eliminated so they have no choice. Again polygamy is a very unequal, and slave and master-like practice."Key word here is "Mainly" practised. You say that you fail to see how this logic adopted in "backward countries" is flawed in anyway however I don't see how it isn't flawed on the account of such little women's rights in these countries. For all these reasons I don't see how polygamy can be an acceptable practise in the modern world. It adopts barbaric policies and outdated rules that we are way ahead of in this day and age and causes harm to every party involved, as I have shown. I look forward to your response.