😳😨…. The definition of Biological man and woman is no more determined by genitalia ! The SC of India enlightens us all today by imparting new wisdom!
The Honourable Justices of the Supreme Court have a great burden on their head and soul indeed… It is a very, very complicated case to pass judgment upon. They sit in judgment on the belief-systems and cultural ethos of a vast country and peoples such as India’s.
The profound question before the 5 wise men of the Court arose and inevitably followed in fact from an earlier verdict which we all know decriminalised sexual or live-in relations in our society between same sex couples. So, as night follows day, it stands to reason to ask: If it is OK for same-sex couples to live together why can’t it be OK for them to live together in lawful matrimony? And then the next logical corollary of the question is : If same sex marriage is OK why is it not OK for a child to have same-sex parents?
The observations of the Supreme Court during yesterday’s court hearings seem to overly focus on the Biology of Marriage. Which is why the above comment on male and female genitalia. The Honourable Judges perhaps should also … perhaps they will in the ensuing days ahead in Court …. take a much more holistic and relevant view of the issue before passing judgement or reviewing it —- one that also takes into account the Physics/Chemistry and Psychology of the whole matter.
In the parlance of Physics, parenting a child can be said to be like charging up a battery… both a Positive and Negative pole — + / – — are necessary to energise or activate the charge.
Likewise, a child can be said to be in deep need of psychological “charging” too which can be provided only by the combined biology of man and woman — as a father and as a mother.
That “charging” — which can be imagined to be a mysterious, combined result of Biology, Physics/Chemistry and Psychology — begins not merely at the adoption of a child by a same-sex wedded couple who may, of course, be able to lavish it with all parental TLC (tender loving care). The “charging” actually begins however far earlier : it starts right from the point of conception as seed and is carried all the way through incubation in the womb, to natural pregnancy, to eventual child-bearing, then infancy and finally through to maturity through the many stages of adolescence, youth and adulthood. “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world” … indeed … and that hand is that of none other but a biological mother endowed with biological genitals.
Then there is the tender Psychology of a child to ponder over too.
Let’s imagine a home and family where a same-sex couple — two males — are parenting a child. The child grows up looking upon one male as “Daddy” and the other male as “Mommy”. The child grows up watching the couples’ immediate family members and relatives and friends too recognising one male-parent as Daddy and the other male-parent as Mommy… The idea of both its parents belonging to the same sex — biologically and psychologically — gets therefore deeply ingrained in the psyche of the child.
The child now grows up to school-going age and is admitted to a school . In class, the child for the first time comes across his or her mates talking about their own Daddys and Mommys! For the first time the child sees it and realises that all his or her classmates have parents who are biologically heterosexual! The sexual identity or persona of the Mommy or Daddy that the child sees in school is not the same as the Daddy and Mommy at home! It’s a shock !
Can you imagine the severe trauma such a profound realisation dawning suddenly on the child can likely have on its psyche?! Can you imagine how the little child will struggle to internalise and reconcile the vast difference that does exist between same-sex parenthood and heterosexual parenthood? Can you imagine what a painful journey of mental adjustments the child must make to be able to accept and live with the idea of differently-enabled (gendered) parents ?
This is a very, very serious matter . In all societies, marriage is held to be the bedrock of family as an institution only because a marriage has little meaning if Children and Parenthood are made no part of it at all.
The law therefore should not be narrowly focused only on Biology… or rather crass human physiology. There is Psychology too to be considered carefully — where Psychology borrows analogous concepts from even Physics/Chemistry.
Sudarshan Madabushi