"People live by some laws they make and a lot more they never made," wrote Baron de Montesquieu in The Spirit of the Laws. Sure we have laws against polygamy, but why? Is it just another "prejudice of Western culture"? Is it an old-fashioned bias that we moderns can do without? Some people think so.

"Unlike human sacrifice, consensual polygamy does not violate anyone's rights," writes Jacob Sullum, editor of Reason magazine, a bellwether of libertarian thought. "Whatever its merits, it cannot reasonably be banned in a free society that tolerates all manner of sexual relationships and living arrangements, in and out of wedlock." Many polygamous women tout the practice as a "liberated female lifestyle," offering both a "birth father" and financial support without the messy jealousies and incompatibilities of monogamy.

Author: SBSK