Adultery

==Overview==
[[File:Punition des cocus voluntaires a Venise.jpg|thumb|Public punishment of adulterers in Venice, 17th century]]
[[File:Susana_acusada_de_adulterio_(Antoine_Coypel).jpg|thumb|''Susannah accused of adultery'', by [[Antoine Coypel]]]]
The term ''adultery'' refers to sexual acts between a married person and someone who is not that person's spouse.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adultery |title=Adultery - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary |publisher=Merriam-webster.com |access-date=26 February 2015 |archive-date=14 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141114060418/http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adultery |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/adultery |title=Adultery &#124; Define Adultery at Dictionary.com |publisher=Dictionary.reference.com |access-date=26 February 2015 |archive-date=25 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150225074845/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/adultery |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/adultery |title=adultery - definition of adultery in English from the Oxford dictionary |publisher=Oxforddictionaries.com |access-date=26 February 2015 |archive-date=2 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102045506/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/adultery |url-status=dead }}</ref> It may arise in a number of contexts. In [[criminal law]], adultery was a criminal offence in many countries in the past, and is still a crime in some countries today. In [[family law]], adultery may be a [[grounds for divorce|ground for divorce]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gov.uk/divorce/grounds-for-divorce |title=Get a divorce |publisher=gov.uk |date=5 February 2015 |access-date=26 February 2015 |archive-date=12 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140912073737/https://www.gov.uk/divorce/grounds-for-divorce |url-status=live }}</ref> with the legal definition of adultery being "physical contact with an alien and unlawful organ",<ref>{{cite book |title=Limits: The Role of the Law in Bioethical Decision Making |url=https://archive.org/details/limitsroleoflawi0000dwor |url-access=registration |last=Dworkin |first=Roger B. |year=1996 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-33075-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/limitsroleoflawi0000dwor/page/62 62] }}</ref> while in some countries today, adultery is not in itself grounds for divorce. Extramarital sexual acts not fitting this definition are not "adultery" though they may constitute "unreasonable behavior", also a ground of divorce.

Another issue is the issue of paternity of a child. The application of the term to the act appears to arise from the idea that "criminal intercourse with a married woman ... tended to adulterate the issue [children] of an innocent husband ... and to expose him to support and provide for another man's [children]".<ref>''Evans v. Murff'', 135 F. Supp. 907, 911 (1955).</ref> Thus, the "purity" of the children of a marriage is corrupted, and the inheritance is altered.

In archaic law, there was a [[common law]] tort of [[criminal conversation]] arising from adultery, "conversation" being an archaic euphemism for sexual intercourse. It was a [[Heartbalm tort|tort action]] brought by a husband against a third party (“the other man”) who interfered with the marriage relationship.{{citation needed|date = August 2021}}

Some adultery laws differentiate based on the sex of the participants, and as a result such laws are often seen as discriminatory, and in some jurisdictions they have been struck down by courts, usually on the basis that they discriminated against women.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6528869.stm |title=Africa &#124; Ugandan adultery law 'too sexist' |work=BBC News |date=5 April 2007 |access-date=26 February 2015 |archive-date=27 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150227004540/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6528869.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="ohchr.org"/>

The term ''adultery'', rather than ''extramarital sex'', implies a moral condemnation of the act; as such it is usually not a neutral term because it carries an implied judgment that the act is wrong.<ref>{{cite book|publisher=Blackwell Publishing <!--not John Wiley & Sons it seems, better?-->| doi=10.1002/9781444367072.wbiee372|chapter=Adultery|title=International Encyclopedia of Ethics|year=2013|last1=Brake|first1=Elizabeth|isbn=9781405186414 }}</ref>

Adultery refers to sexual relations which are not officially legitimized; for example it does not refer to having sexual intercourse with multiple partners in the case of [[polygamy]] (when a man is married to more than one wife at a time, called [[polygyny]]; or when a woman is married to more than one husband at a time, called [[polyandry]]).