Äktenskap för par med samma kön Vigselfrågor - Regeringen

Summary SOU 2007:17
which in various ways constitutes an element of their religious beliefs.
At the hearings that I have held, the same objection was raised by
the Church of Sweden and other religious communities.
One factor that goes against accommodating religious communities’
wishes is that, in my opinion, the word ‘marriage’ has been
in regular use for many years and that a change could possibly be
perceived in many quarters to be completely unnecessary. Moreover,
all those who are already married would be put into the
situation that their chosen form of cohabitation would suddenly
assume a different designation. There are also other reasons for not
having a solution that satisfies religious communities. It is, among
other things, difficult to find any appropriate synonym that can
denote the legal relationship between two spouses.
The term marriage (in Swedish äktenskap) in its various linguistic
forms is commonly used in most countries for a relationship between
two persons sanctioned by the State, from which a number of legal
effects ensue in various areas. The usual designation in international
conventions in the area of family law is also ‘marriage’. To
now substitute the established term ‘äktenskap’ (marriage) with
another term in order to designate something that in all essential
respects corresponds to marriage may entail a serious risk of the
new term possibly being misunderstood in other countries as
meaning something other than marriage. Another reason is that the
word ‘marriage’ will also endure even if Swedish legislation changes.
The reasons against introducing another designation for the legal
term ‘marriage’ are so strong that I have not considered the use of
an alternative term to be a feasible way forward.
Reproduction. One objection that has been advanced is that
marriage is a social institution in which children should be born
and grow up, and that with this point of departure it is important
that society protects marriage. Marriage, however, does not only
exist for those who have children. The birth of children is not a
requirement for marriage and many who cannot or do not wish to
have children nonetheless get married. The fact that homosexuals
can not have common biological children can therefore hardly be
an argument against people of the same sex being able to get
married to each other. On the contrary, the European Court has
established in a legal case that the possibility of having common
biological children does not constitute a precondition for the right
to get married.
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