I have to start by saying that I'm glad you're watching Big Love. It's one of my favorite shows and I think it's one of the best written and most interesting shows out there.

I wouldn't be opposed to legalization of polygamy since I think the government should limit its involvement in people's personal affairs. The institutionalization of monogamy is more a way to simplify taxation and inheritances. In terms of personal liberties polygamy would be fine as long as it is between consenting adults. The problem is what it can do to our legal order. It would literally turn family law upside down. So for practical purposes polygamy can be decriminalized and tolerated but not incorporated into our system.

The first issue is custody of the children. Like in Big Love, a polygamous family will consider all the wives to be the children's mothers. This poses a problem in the event of a separation since the custody of the child has to be divided multiple ways. How would you determine custody, parental and visitation rights?

The other question with polygamy is whether it should be allowed both ways. Due to equal protection of the laws, the government would have to allow polygamy as well as polyandry (which is a woman marrying multiple men). In polygamy of course the paternity of the children is presumed to be the husband's but in polyandry unless each child is submitted to DNA testing the paternity of the children is uncertain. Not knowing who the father of the children is can pose serious problems in terms of inheritances and custody rights.

So while polygamy in the abstract can be seen as an exercise of individual liberty, if the government were to condone it would require a huge overhaul in family law and how inheritances are determined. The logistical nightmare of officially recognizing polygamy is enough reason to not allow it.

That said, I believe it should be decriminalized as long as it involves consenting persons of legal age to marry. But while the government can tolerate it, actually integrating it into the legal system would be so difficult that it might as well be left out. Establishing a specific framework for polygamous families is too much of a hassle to our legislatures.

If polygamy was decriminalized each additional "spouse" can still be considered a domestic partner and entitled to domestic partner protections in the law. In terms of custody and inheritances, the current laws need to be followed but families that choose polygamous lifestyles should be encouraged to leave their affairs in order by drafting wills and custody and palimony agreements. The terms of the unions should be left to the parties involved with the law only offering them minimum protection and when conflicts arise they always have courts. And all this would still be less of a hassle than changing our entire legal system to accommodate polygamy and polyandry.

"Would you be opposed to legalizing polygamy?" - No.
I do not care in the least bit how many people any other person wants to marry.

A female with a hundred husbands, male with 666 wives, to me it is not one iota of my business what sort of non violent religious ceremony like marriage anyone wants to perform, who they want to perform it with, and how many times they would like to preform it... with anyone. I would like religious ceremonies like marriage to be between people of the age of consent in the jurisdiction where they live but otherwise I really could not care less.

Go ahead and legalize polygamy.
Just because it is legal does not mean you have to do it.

I find it almost comical how serious this "marriage" thing is taken anyway.
Gay, straight, or bisexual, male, female, 2 people, or 4367 people, 2 men married to each other each with 7 wives outside of that marriage, and each of those 7 wives have 3 male husbands and 4 female wives, and each of those spouses have 3, 5, 10, or 4,673,289.69 squared other spouses all of alien decent and of a gender we as Earthlings have yet to discover. Whatever, do what makes you happy with your religion and others who practice it with you.

Please video the weddings and broadcast them on network TV.. I do not have cable.

No I would not oppose it but it's not for me. I don't believe the males have any intimacy in this type of a relationship and it is degrading to females. But it is not for me to stop if that is what people want for themselves. I think this seems to be more of an outdated type of thinking when women died in childbirth or young the other was already there.

I would probably opposed it, for the children, because it might be hard for them to handle if problem arise in the family.

Nope. I have never been concerned about the constitution.

But, no, am against polygamy. I support monogamy.

I think polygamy is awesome, I really do. Not everyone can do it, I mean, to love more than one person, each of those persons in the relationship equally, without crippling jealousy... I couldn't handle it. I've wanted to try, but I have always been a one person girl. Strangely enough, even with friends.

I always seem to have only one best friend at a time, and as soon as that one passes along, another one finds me. I guess I'm lucky. Once I had two best friends, for a period of about a year. I didn't know what to do. There were many issues, both within myself, and between us. I would ask myself things like, do I tell one I can't hang out with them because I have plans with the other? Do I have to choose between them in certain situations? Ehh, it was a pain. Don't get me wrong, I love people, and I love having great friends. It's just that some people work better when they have a deep connection with just one other person. Just like in romantic relationships. And some people can not only handle a polygamous relationship, but they find that that's what makes them the happiest.

So hey, whether it be friendship, marriage or dating, I say go for it. I'm actually quite jealous of the freedom that polygamy represents. Maybe I'll give it a whirl one day, but until then, I fully support polygamous relationships, and would love it if they legalized polygamous marriages!

All the answers above have not seen polygamy practiced. Yes you see a show, geared towards showing the good side of polygamy. Great. See below.

I agree with dumblond that if polygamy was legalized, so should polyandry. But again, that would complicate things, as she mentioned, inheritances.

You got to wonder, where does it stop, and what would the limitations be? Can a wealthy man marry more women than a poor man? A wealthy man can support multiple wives, because he may be able to have multiple houses, and cars, and such.

What responsibilities must the first wife have over the other wives? Does she have a duty to allow her husband to have 10+ wives?

Must we have legalized consent from each of the wives before the man marries the next? If one of them doesn't consent, will she be looked down upon? Is that enough reason for divorce. When divorce does happen, do we again have to get consent from all the wives, since they consented in them getting married? If one doesn't consent, then what?

Can a woman ask for a divorce and be offered it? Will she be allowed to divorce the husband without consent from all the other women?

Polygamy sounds fun, if you've never seen in practiced. Unfortunately a lot of men cannot be fair, and cannot give their love equally. My mom was a second wife. 9/10 times, the man will marry someone younger. My mom did not have a say when he wanted to marry a younger woman (much younger than he was, I believe she was in her 20s, he was in his 50s.) He was a poor man, didn't provide for either of his wives, or children. He wanted so much from them. I was too young to be able to tell if the 1st wife was fair to my mom. I know that the 1st wife had an affair and my mothers husband did not get mad, did not divorce her, but only guarded her a little closer. I don't get it! If my hubby were to have an affair, I would leave him. At that point he has no regard as to what I feel, or he doesn't love me anymore, because he wants to be with someone else. But nope, he didn't leave her. I know this hurt my mom terribly.

This misuse of control, and side of polygamy I would never want to see again. Unfortuneatly you hear about it time and time again in the Hmong community. I don't know about young people, but the traditional older Hmong generation will often have multiple wives.

A man should only take on as many wives as he can afford to care for. In this lifetime regardless of the amount of money that one possesses I find that most of my friends wealthy or poor, can only afford one wife. I would ask you this question, if it was required that you have one job per wife, how many wives would you want to take on. If your answer is more than one I would contend that you are not truly in need of another wife since the time you spend at your job(s) is greater than the time spent with your wives.

I think it ought to be legal as long as everyone involved are consenting adults.

polygamy should be legal. it would reduce extramarital affairs, bring more excitement to a relationship, and create a "free trade" type of economy in a marriage.

Marriage can be thought of as a monopoly. The wife owns all of the rights and sales of everything in the marriage. If there were multiple wives, there would be more competition and more emphasis to impress and gain the attention of the husband. The reverse could also apply to to multiple husbands and one wife or multiple wives and husbands, like a group marriage.

Personally I wouldn't be opposed to it. I wouldn't take part because I don't think it is healthy for anyone involved. I do have to say I would be opposed if gay marriage wasn't allowed and polygamy was. My view is if polygamy was to become legal that would mean we weren't minding other people's business anymore. If that was to be the case then gay marriage would have to be legal! Fairness to all!