Ethical Dilemma-Adultery

My conclusion is that adultery is unethical. In the following rational argument, I will support why adultery is unethical. The term adultery is defined as voluntary sexual intercourse between a married man or woman and a partner other than the legal spouse (Collins English Dictionary, Dictionary.com). What makes adultery unethical is that it involves the breaking of a promise. One of the vows two parties promise each other when they get married is that they will abstain from sexual relationships with other people. Because of this promise both spouses have the expectation that the other will behave in conformity with it. Thus, when one of the parties has sexual intercourse with a third person he or she breaks that promise about sexual relationships which was made when the marriage was entered into, and defeats the expectations of exclusivity by the spouse. The breaking of this promise leads to the intentional infliction of substantial pain by one spouse to another. The immorality of such things as breaking a promise and deceiving someone and the action of adultery is, in a strong sense of prima facie, wrong or unjustified. According to Raja Halwani, in his book titled Sex and Ethics: Essays on sexuality, virtue and the good life, the unique wrongness of adultery results from adultery being an assault on a person’s self-conception and self-worth as a human being emotionally, sexually and erotically. It is rational to want to sustain one’s love on the basis of how it was formed, namely, through sexual intimacy and exclusivity. Adultery is wrong because the pain it causes is both understandable and rational to feel. (Halwani, Raja (Ed.); pp. 190-201). Another argument against adultery is the connection between adultery and deception. Because deception is always unethical, so is adultery. Extramarital sex will