Note: The below contains graphic descriptions of sexual themes. Readers are advised to exercise discretion before proceeding. Those who do not wish to read it can skip to the next section titled “The Future Isn’t Fiction”.
You close the case file on Danny. Just a year ago, he was manufactured in an artificial birthing chamber using the genetic material of four couples. Now, they’re all fighting over him.
You nurse a slight migraine, toss the file onto the growing pile of unresolved custody cases, and head to the train station. Tomorrow, more cohabitants will show up with more grievances. Yes, cohabitants: it’s been ages since formal marriage was abolished.
You board the train and peer out the window. Neon billboards flash erotic images of scantily-clad androgynes, advertisements for the latest self-gratification android. Just as you start contemplating an upgrade, the PA system announces your stop.
You disembark and head toward your apartment. A new sign catches your eye. A recent addition to the shopping complex.
It lists all manner of fetish and kink: BDSM, Scat, Golden Showers. Prices start at $50 an hour, with bundle deals from $80. You consider entering the brothel, then decide against it. Maybe when the next paycheck comes.
You climb the stairs and reach your floor. Anne is outside your door. With a sigh, you knock on your neighbour’s. Mother 2 answers, a leather collar around her neck. She apologises and ushers her child back in.
Before the door shuts, you catch a glimpse inside. Mothers 3 and 5 and Fathers 1 and 2 scramble to hide a dog. You shrug. Who are you to judge?
You unlock your door. A.I.LEEN appears and asks about your day. Stressful, you say. She offers to help you destress. You agree and select a service.
Mid-process, something feels off. You pause and adjust her settings. 40, 39, 38 … 14. Something new.
Her wrinkles vanish. Smooth porcelain skin appears. Much better, you think. You bought her to avoid rejection, but this android’s actually better than the real deal: always eager, always satisfies. It’s been this way for 15 years. She can even morph into A.I.DEN, prime specimen of manhood, if that’s your preference.
But just before you continue, unease creeps in. What are you doing? How can you simulate intercourse with a minor?
Sure, it’s legal now if consensual, and A.I.LEEN isn’t human. But something about it feels wrong. Deeply wrong.
How did your conscience – and the rest of society’s – sink this far? What led you all to this point?
The Future Isn’t Fiction
If you think the dystopian world above is too far-fetched, think again. Much of it is already unfolding in the West.
Take paedophilia. Activists and academics now rebrand paedophiles as “Minor-Attracted Persons”.
Then there’s the sexualisation of public life. “Pride” parades in the West increasingly normalise kink – leather harnesses, dog masks, and ball gags are paraded in full view of children and defended as queer expression.
Artificial reproductive technology is also opening a Pandora’s box. In cases like the University of California at Irvine embryo scandal, multiple adults laid claim to the same child. The more we commodify reproduction, the less clear family becomes.
AI-powered companionship is not science fiction either. The Men Going Their Own Way movement encourages men to abandon real women for AI chatbots. All that stands between that and androids morphing to meet sexual fantasies is time and tech.
These perverse developments may seem disconnected, but they share a root: the erosion of marriage and its moral norms. Here’s how.
The Purpose of Marriage
Marriage serves two main goals: procreation and marital friendship.
A loving couple forms the best foundation for raising children. Raising children together also deepens their bond. Together, they create a virtuous cycle.
To ensure this outcome as far as possible, marriage relies on these norms:
- Permanence: Marriage is for life. It calls couples to stay committed through difficulties.
- Exclusivity and Loyalty: Marriage demands faithfulness and your all, physically and emotionally.
- Parental duty: Parents are responsible for raising their own children.
These norms are more than ideals. They push us beyond self-interest and towards mutual care and protect children from abandonment. Together, they ensure that children born in marriage are raised by their own mother and father within a stable, enduring home, fulfilling the purpose of marriage.
Because the state depends on children for its future, it backs these norms through law to give them the best chance to flourish.
How Law Reinforces Norms
While moral norms can be reinforced socially, laws remain the most powerful influence:
- They clarify behaviour: Laws define what spouses owe each other.
- They express values: Laws shape how society understands marriage, even when unenforced.
- They withdraw support: When laws are repealed, the norms they upheld often fade.
When laws support the norms marriage relies on, marriages thrive. When it doesn’t, the institution weakens.
We see this across the world today as society begins to unravel what once held families and communities together.
When Law Steps Back, Marriage Suffers
In the United States, six states now recognise multiparent families, weakening the norm of parental duty where children are raised by their own mother and father.
Then came no-fault divorce. Where couples once needed a valid reason to divorce, now they can walk away with no explanation.
This undermined the norm of permanence. If you can leave for any reason, what does marriage commit you to? How hard must you try to save a marriage?
Without clear standards, couples often rely on short-term emotions, not long-term obligation. Stability declines and conflict resolution suffers as couples may give up rather than work things through.
But knowing you’re in it for life fosters greater patience, perseverance, and cooperation.
Law Shapes What Marriage Means
The law doesn’t just reflect culture, it shapes it.
When the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, it severed marriage from male-female complementarity and procreation through it.
Once those foundational purposes were abandoned, marriage became whatever we wanted it to be. This paves the way for other relationships equally detached from marriage’s original purpose.
The same pattern applies to pornography. The Supreme Court struck down laws forcing adult cable television channels to limit their transmission to watershed periods. Then, it blocked bans on content depicting performers as children engaging in sexual acts. All under the name of treating porn as free speech.
This redefined sex as no longer something sacred to marriage, but a tool for pleasure available to all, weakening the norm of exclusivity.
Unsurprisingly, cultural attitudes followed suit. In 1969, 79% of Americans opposed sex outside marriage. By 2014, only 25% did.
When the law stops upholding what marriage means, the institution starts to fall apart.
And we edge closer to dystopia.
Singapore: Early Signs of Erosion
We might think this can’t happen here. But the signs are already there.
Take divorce by mutual agreement. The government said it wouldn’t lead to more divorces. But that misses the point. Lowering barriers matter. When divorce is easier, expectations of lifelong commitment weaken, undermining the norm of permanence.
Or look at pornography. Singapore bans obscene materials under the Undesirable Publications Act, but enforcement is weak. Onlyfans creator Titus Low earned $345,000 from his pornographic content but was fined just $3,000. His jail time came only because he defied a police order. Meanwhile, others openly advertise porn on social media with little to no consequence.
If the law isn’t sufficiently enforced, it loses its power to shape the correct norms. Porn laws, for example, uphold sexual exclusivity. When they’re not sufficiently enforced, porn spreads freely and sex becomes a commodity, undermining the norm of exclusivity.
Finally, Singapore’s repeal of Section 377A, which criminalised gay sex, may mark a turning point. After all, guess how long it took for the US Supreme Court to go from declaring homosexual sodomy bans unconstitutional to declaring same-sex marriage a constitutional right? A mere 12 years.
Same-sex marriage creates families that deliberately deprive children of their mother or father. Moms or dads won’t be able to raise their own kids, undermining the norm of parental duty.
We aren’t there yet. But if our laws keep drifting from the moral norms marriage rests on, that may well change.
Marriage Is A Public Good
Marriage was never just private. It’s a public good built on moral foundations that laws reinforce.
When commitment is optional, sex becomes a product, and parenthood is detached from biology, the fallout spreads.
If we want to preserve marriage, we must stay vigilant. Laws shape culture. And when the things that matter most are slowly eroded, we must speak up.
If not, we’ll descend into depravity.
