How quickly utilitarian Marxists abandon principle and become freedom fighters on this one. Children are the vested interest. The work of Barbara Dafoe Whitehead documents without equivocation the damage to children raised otherwise. Unless heterosexual marriage retains its exclusive status and is honored by its participants' commitment, the hope of raising children who don't pack the emotional stability of a WWF regular as well as an Uzi by junior high wanes. Just the logistics of failed marriage are indicative of its unique role.
Deadbeat fathers are divorced fathers.
Single mothers are generally in poverty because they abandoned their vows or never took them in the first place. Complexities of visitation, grandparents rights, step families and the general confusion that arise when marriages end are the fruits of disregard. If parenting sans biology is so easy, address the law's struggle with the cognitive dissonance of many adopted children. Adoption is society's most stable alternative parenting arrangement but even it has not yet fully grappled with the yearnings of these children to know their biological roots, an indication of the precious solace mother and father as creators offers. The Crosby, Cypher, Etheridge and Mrs. Crosby combo plate portrait dizzies the brain with questions about legal rights, visitation, adoption and sheer confusion in those young children as they sort through the biological defiance and self-absorption of two women who don't understand that the first great test of parenthood is doing what's best for the child, not what you want.