In Depth:  Graham Wood

In Sweden, where same-sex marriage is legal, family life is slowly dying.

According to Stanley Kurtz, Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Policy Center in the US, ‘Same-sex marriage (SSM) has locked in and reinforced an existing Scandinavian trend toward the separation of marriage and parenthood. The Nordic family pattern — including ‘gay’ marriage — is spreading across Europe. And by looking closely at it we can answer the key empirical question underlying the ‘gay’ marriage debate. Will same-sex marriage undermine the institution of marriage? It already has. More precisely, it has further undermined the institution. The separation of marriage from parenthood was increasing; ‘gay’ marriage has widened the separation. Out-of-wedlock birthrates were rising; ‘gay’ marriage has added to the factors pushing those rates higher. Instead of encouraging a society-wide return to marriage, Scandinavian ‘gay’ marriage has driven home the message that marriage itself is outdated, and that virtually any family form, including out-of-wedlock parenthood, is acceptable’.*

In October 2003, the last in a series of IGCs (Inter-Governmental Conference) began in Rome between the representatives of all the member states of the European Union, to discuss the most ambitious and challenging proposals ever to confront Europe's national leaders.

The second and final Treaty of Rome, if agreed and ratified, would for the first time in Europe's history abolish the independent nation status of each country for absorption into a new embryo state - the European Union, or United States of Europe, as it may be called.