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"France's
Catholic bishops have lambasted it as 'unnecessary and dangerous'. A leading
right-winger has denounced it as a 'sort of sub-marriage for homosexuals'.
Nearly 19,000 French mayors, out of some 37,000, have signed a petition
against 'this union against nature'. And tens of thousands of rank-and-file
Frenchmen have inundated the government with demands for the abandonment
of an 'infamous project which will destroy the last remains of civilisation
separating us from barbarism'" (The Economist, September 26, 1998).
"'The dreaded threat? A left-winger's bill, up for discussion
in parliament next month, to propose a legal framework for cohabiting couples,
homosexual or heterosexual, who 'cannot or do not wish to marry'. Under
the Civil Solidarity Pact, known by its acronym PACS, unmarried couples
would become eligible for many of the fiscal and legal rights enjoyed by
married ones, without having to submit to the same constraints (such as
support payments after break-up)" (The Economist, September 26,
1998).
"In particular, they would be able to file joint tax-returns,
benefit from each other's welfare insurance, inherit the lease on a shared
home, and be exempt from deth duties on the first ($53,000) left by the
deceased partner instead of having to pay the 60% tax normally payable by
unrelated heirs. In return, they would have to agree to support one another
financially and share responsibility for any debts. The pact would not be
open to home-sharing relations or to anyone already married. It would not
provide the right to adopt or get artificial insemination. And it would
not permit an automatic change of name" (The Economist, September
26, 1998).
"Outside Scandinavia, France has the highest proportion of unmarried
couples in Europe. One in seven French (heterosexual) couples cohabit, twice
the proportion of ten years ago. Among French women aged 25 to 29, half
of those living with a man now opt to do so without getting married. Not
surprising, then, that at least four French babies out of ten are now born
out of wedlock -- giving the country, again bar Scandinavia, Europe's highest
rate of illegitimacy" (The Economist, September 26, 1998).
According to a recent survey, only 8% of respondents in France believed
that it was wrong for unmarried couples to have children out of wedlock,
while 9!% thought it was not wrong. In Britain, 25% of respondents thought
it was wrong, while 73% thought it was not wrong. In the United States,
47% of respondents thought it was wrong for unmarried couples to have children
out of wedlock, while 50% thought it was not wrong (Gallup Organization,
The Princeton Religion Research Center, The Christian Science Monitor, October
1, 1998).
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