Caring for each other: a rapid review of how mutual dependency is challenged by advanced illness

This review explores factors sustaining and threatening couples’ relationships when both have advanced illness. Qualitative studies exploring relationships between two people in a marriage/partnership with advanced illness are included. A total of 12 articles are included. Internal enabling factors, external enabling factors and threatening factors are identified. However, there is limited evidence internationally on factors sustaining these relationships and crisis factors. Little is known about the impact of crises on couples and the process of change from mutual dependency to carer and cared for. The article concludes that shifts by services towards holistic care focused on the couple’s needs are indicated.

Surrogate (Replacement) Motherhood or should the uterus be rented?

After the birth of the “test-tube baby,” the triumphant success of reproductive technologies has dramatically accelerated scientific research in many fields and given hope to couples struggling with the problem of infertility. However, at the same time, new and numerous moral, ethical, bioethical, legal, social, cultural, and gender dilemmas and controversies have been imposed, especially in countries where trends of negative population growth are increasingly emphasized. These assisted reproductive technologies are making a difference, and not just from the aspect of medicine towards sterility. They are also profoundly affecting social and cultural patterns of marriage, partnership, parenting, and gender. Surrogate or surrogate motherhood, as part of the field of reproductive technology issues, calls for an urgent rethinking of the possibilities for institutionalized motherhood practices in contemporary society and its effects in everyday life. In other words, it is an attempt to demystify, denaturalize, and re-evaluate maternal norms, which always indicate relationships in specific material conditions of centralizing or decentralizing public or private power or sociability. However, they primarily and above all are related to the possibility of prior (bio)ethical evaluation, which would ensure sound legal regulation with respect to the possible (evil) use and commercialization of human life.

Relationship status, social networks, and wellbeing among older adults

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] The present studies examined the relationship between social relationships and wellbeing for adults aged 50+ among different marital status groups. Study one examined whether and how relationship status is associated with social network ties (i.e., social network characteristics, family and friend emotional support, and neighborhood social ties) and wellbeing (i.e., emotional wellbeing and self-rated health). Study two examined, within partnered older adults, whether social network ties are associated with one's own and/or one's partner's emotional wellbeing and self-rated health and also examined the moderating role of social network ties in the relationship between relationship strain and wellbeing. Analyses were conducted using the National Social, Health, and Aging Project dataset. Study one included 2,361 adults aged 57 and over with 52.7 percent identifying as female and 65.8 percent identifying as non-Hispanic White. Study two included 865 dyads with an average age of 70.91 with 50 percent identifying as female and 69.7 percent identifying as nonHispanic White. Study one found that marrieds consistently reported lower levels of social ties in comparison to widows and divorcees and men reported lower levels of social ties in comparison to women. Those who were partnered (i.e., cohabiting or married) reported lesser associations between social network ties and wellbeing as compared to those who were unpartnered. In study two, results suggested one's own and one's partner's social relationships outside of a marriage/partnership were associated with both partner's wellbeing. Men experienced more partner effects, with wives' relationship strain and social ties associated with men's wellbeing. Combined, these two studies demonstrate that social relationships, even those outside of a marriage, are salient to the wellbeing of older adults. They also lend support for the importance of cultivating social relationships, including social relationships outside of a marriage/partnership, throughout the life course.

Demanding Equal Rights and Treatment of Husbands/Partners in Paternity Disputes: A South African Perspective

The legitimacy presumption poses a threat to the equality of parties in a marriage/partnership in today’s constitutional society. The approach adopted by courts in paternity disputes reveals an ongoing inequality in marriages/partnerships. The marriage/partnership is being used by courts to prevent a husband/partner from introducing a paternity claim on the assumption that doing so is not in the best interests of the child. Courts should be cautious in using children as a mechanism for preventing a husband/partner from determining their biological relationship. The child’s best interests can only be advanced if children know his biological identity. Husband/partner must have the right to know their biological relationship to their wives/partner’s children. A husbands/partners’ right to assert his paternity claims, on a balance of probabilities and on an equal basis is an inherent right to dignity.