"no meaningful difference"

     "To accept same-sex unions as 'marriage' is thus to commit officially to the proposition that there is no meaningful difference between a married man and woman conceiving a child naturally, two women conceiving a child with the aid of donor semen and IVF, or two men employing a surrogate to have a child together, though in the latter cases only one of the legally recognized parents can (presently) contribute to the child’s hereditary endowment and hope for a family resemblance. By recognizing same-sex ‘marriages’ the state also determines once and for all that ARTs are not merely a remedy for infertility but a normative form of reproduction equivalent to natural procreation, and indeed it has been suggested in some cases that ARTs are an improvement upon nature. Yet if this is true, it follows that no great weight attaches to natural motherhood and fatherhood and that being born to a father and mother is inessential to what it means to be human, or even to the meaning of childhood and family. These are not fundamentally 'natural' phenomena integral to human identity and social welfare but mere accidents of biology overlaid with social conventions that can be replaced by 'functionally equivalent' roles without loss."

     Michael Hanby, "The brave new world of same-sex marriage," The Federalist, 19 February 2014.