The marriage as a interpretive concept and its recognition as a moral right of homosexuals

Abstract

The project aims to answer affirmatively the following question: is there a moral right to gay marriage? For that, it seeks to make an analysis of the theme from the Moral and Political Philosophy, which demonstrates the need to conceptualize marriage before checking whether it constitutes a moral right or not. To do so, it aims to analyze critically the conceptions of marriage made by Ronald Dworkin and John Finnis, after proposing one that is capable of treating marriage as a interpretive concept. Only then we can check if the marriage can be a moral right of homosexuals, which is made primarily from the critique developed by Dworkin to the position of Patrick Devlin, and by the dworkinian conception of equality and human dignity. At the end, it was concluded that the state's duty to treat individuals with equal respect and consideration implies the recognition of marriage as a moral right of homosexuals, and that the consideration of the question from the standpoint of public morality implies the discussion of its limits, as well in the wider debate about the rights of minorities in general.