These statutes originated in the agrarian era when the family was anchored on the farm and the whole idea, for example, of intestate secession was grounded in an agrarian economy. For example, I have had farmers tell me that in the old days they used to draw a line down the middle of a barn and all the grain stored on one side belonged to the widowed mother and on the other side to the children. Her grain was her dower interest. In that context, it made sense for the kids who grew up and took over the farm to take care of the hospital bills for their parents just as their parents had taking care care of them.
One of the purposes of The Frankfurt School was to do away with the institutions which retarded the onset of communism. The founders identified the family as a bulwark against communism which must be destroyed. They set out to do that and they succeeded brilliantly. No-fault divorce, abortion on demand, the systematic attack and ridiculing of the father as an authority figure, all played a part in undoing the nuclear family as it had existed during the agrarian age. These communists were also greatly assisted by a technological revolution that moved people to the cities and generally spread them across the country away from the family farm. Perhaps more than any other factor the birth control pill contributed to the fracturing of the nuclear family. For one reason and another, the agrarian model no longer applies yet the statute lives on.
Rather than a reflection of the unity and cohesion of the nuclear family living on the farm, these statutes now constitute a direct threat to the survival of the family unit.
