Until only recently, Austen's view prevailed. Family and marriage are thereby irreducible to other relationships and can claim priority to them. To be married and a member of a family means partnership in something with a mind and heart of its own. Such ideas are now under siege. Responsibilities once rooted in marriage and family are sacrificed or redefined.
Few problems tear our community more profoundly, for example, than abortion.
To deal with it, one might imagine that we would muster every available resource, including the family. Instead, the courts have decreed that when it comes to abortion we owe little respect to marriage and family. Wives and minor children, for instance, are not obliged to seek the counsel, let alone the consent, of spouses or parents on the abortion decision. Basically, they are on their own. To discard the unique relationship of husband and wife eventually leads to discarding the idea of parents and children.