Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Scottish men can now marry their mothers-in-law.
Secular law finally arrives in Scotland...
The weird and wacky world of the Jerry Springer TV show has crossed paths with the Scottish Executive, with a change in the law which will let men marry their mothers-in-law...Wouldn't waking up in bed with your mother-in-law be bad enough? Some of us might ask to be burned alive rather than deal with that.
The family law reforms set out yesterday by Hugh Henry, deputy justice minister, include a change to a law dating back to 1567. That was based on the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, which said that if a man takes a wife and lies with her mother, all three should be burned alive.
That punishment, or its modern equivalent, will no longer be meted out in Scotland.
The updating was proposed when the marriage laws were last reformed in 1977, but was turned down at the time because they were believed to "endanger roles within the family and would open up possible erotic overtones"...It'd have to be one heck of a tax bill, for some of us.
However, the new law could create an incentive to use it to avoid inheritance tax... [The Herald]
By the way, I'm Scottish-American. Grandpa came to the US from Edinburgh for reasons that ... he never made entirely clear.
As this new law also allows men to marry their daughters-in-law, maybe I'll have reason to go back and visit some day!
