Mexico City, one of the largest and most liberal capitals in the world, has a law up its sleeve to nix the number of divorces in a city where almost half of all marriages end in divorce within the first couple of years.
If the law goes ahead, newlyweds would be bound for a minimum of two years, after which they could decide whether or not to stay together. The contract would also include provisions on the fate of property and children should the union dissolve.
According to the Star report, advocates of the Leftist law hope to spare couples the "torturous process of divorce". A vote is expected at the end of this year.
Needless to say, the proposed law has the world's second largest Catholic population up in arms. "This reform is absurd," said Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Mexican archdiocese. "It contradicts the nature of marriage."
Does the proposed contract cheapen the institution of marriage, or is it a much-needed reality check?
Tatiana and Krista Hogan are closer than most sisters. According to a recent article in Maclean's, the congenital five-year-old twins from Vernon, B.C., not only share part of a brain, they can see through each other's eyes.
It is believed they might even be able to taste what the other is eating and read each other's thoughts.
The only thing possibly more incredible than their union is the team -- comprising extended family, doctors, teachers, and of course their superlative parents, Felicia Simms and Brendan Hogan -- which makes the twins' day-to-day existence possible.
Even though they are still undergoing a battery of neurological tests to determine exactly what they share and perceive, Tati and Krista (who cannot be surgically separated) are attending kindergarten like other girls their age.
Fortunately, so far their classmates have been curious, but kind. It is the parents, claims Simms, who have been the ones with the problem. Some have gone so far as to stop their children from playing with the twins.
While the girls share a part of the thalamus, known as the brain's relay station, neurologists believe Tati and Krista will continue to develop their own personalities. How they will deal with their difference as they grow older is anyone's guess. But I smell a reality show brewing, and frankly it stinks.
Already they've been the star attractions on Anderson Cooper's new talk show, and further appearances are no doubt in the works this very minute.
Is it right to immerse the twins in a conventional (school) system when their lives promise to be anything but conventional?
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