I found Joseph L. Attard’s letter “Divorce – what does it really imply? to be a one-sided analysis of divorce and its consequences (TMIS, 10 August). The main gist of the letter was that divorce will challenge our social family structure and predicted severe consequences in terms of marriage breakdowns, financial and welfare issues. I too questioned what would be really at stake if Malta introduces divorce.

The way I see it is that by legislating divorce we would be addressing the social structure of the family and not the other way around. Although Mr Attard speaks of the family, he is oblivious of the fact that there are three types of family structures in Malta. These are marriages, cohabitations and single parents. No one can deny that over the last decade marriage breakdowns have increased and cohabitation and single parents here become commonplace.

Basically, although we have no divorce, marriages still break down for a number of reasons ranging from infidelity to abuse to domestic violence. Unlike Mr Attard, I do not believe that all marriages are made in heaven and it’s only natural that some of them break down. People from these broken marriages tend to settle down with someone else and have children. As social stigmas relating to broken marriages have practically disappeared, the cohabiting and single parent family structures have evolved and grown in numbers. In fact, unlike Mr Attard’s claims, the percentage of marriage breakdowns in Malta is on a par with Italy, Spain and Ireland’s divorce rates (vide Eurostat report 14 July).

All the financial and welfare implications being cited as consequences of the introduction of divorce are an absurdity. Unless I am mistaken, financial and child welfare issues are tackled by the family court during separation, therefore divorce legislation will bring nothing new except the right to remarry.

So to conclude, if the main effect of divorce will be nothing more than allowing those who want to remarry to do so at the registrar’s office, I really have to ask: what is the big deal really about?

Emanuel Gauci

BIRKIRKARA