Some interesting questions for Senator Santorum

My wife has written an open letter to Rick Santorum (R-PA), who has recently caused a furor over his comments in an AP interview. As she prefers her own blog to be more information-oriented, I include it here.

Dear Senator Santorum,

I'm sure you're getting lots of mail on your recently stated views on homosexual behavior and personal privacy. While I, too, have concerns on those issues, I would like to ask you to clarify your opinions on another subject you touched on in your recent interview, one which has nothing to do with homosexuality. You said: "...I would [have a problem] with acts ... outside of traditional heterosexual relationships. And that includes a variety of different acts, not just homosexual." And that "society is based on one thing: that society is based on the future of the society. And that's what? Children."

These questions are all based on the apparent contention, based on the above statements, that marriage is only about children, and by extension that sexual acts that cannot result in procreation are deviant and should be regulated by law.

Should all people who are incapable of having children be required by law to be celibate? Should they be barred from entering into monogamous heterosexual marriages? Does it make a difference, morally or legally, if the sterility is congenital, voluntary, or the result of an accident or medical condition? If a person is found after marriage to be sterile, is that grounds for annulment, and would an annulment be optional or mandatory? If a person becomes sterile after marriage (voluntarily or otherwise), should they be required to divorce? If so, how many years should a couple be given to try to have a child before being required to end the marriage? Would the presence of any children born before the sterility affect this requirement?

I'd be interested to hear your comments on any of your fellow congress members who, though married, have chosen not to or are unable to have children. Are their marriages invalid? If you were, say, staying in a hotel room next to theirs and heard what appeared to be them having sexual relations, would you call the police to have them arrested for deviant behavior?

Should couples who are, for whatever reason, no longer able to bear children (such as the wife being past child-bearing age), be required by law to cease having any sort of sexual relations? As an aside to this, I would like to know if you plan on continuing to have sex with your wife after she goes through menopause (if she has not already). Normally I would hesitate to ask such a personal question, but your views on privacy lead me to belive you think such information should be public knowledge.

There are currently medical procedures which can help people who are unable to conceive a child through the usual process to have children. Would access to these make an otherwise unacceptable marriage acceptable? Under what circumstances? Would it then be acceptable for such a couple to have "normal" sex, even though such sex would not be contributing to the production of the child?

Just one more, to tie this all together. Does the State have the right to regulate (emphasis on words that are important parts of this question) *private* sexual behavior between *legally married* *monogamous* *heterosexual* couples? If it is permissible to regulate sexual acts based on whether or not they have a chance of resulting in the conception of a child, then these laws WILL affect people in the above-mentioned category, including yourself and your wife.

I thank you for your time and attention on this issue, and look forward to hearing your answers.

Even I am surprised by the vociferousness of many conservatives' defense of the man. It's all the interviewer's fault (what, she tricked him into being overwhelmingly bigoted?), or he is "inclusive" (his anti-freedom statements, I suppose, being irrelevant), or worst of all, he is defended as being right.

So-called conservatives claiming that privacy isn't a fundamental constitutional right, and that personal, private behavior is an attack on "normal" families. Ye gods. Apparently, they are a touch unclear on the meaning of "illegal search and seizure."

X2 comes out in a mere few days. I have to wonder if the parable is entirely lost on men like Senator Santorum.

(/) Roland
Robin Cook for President