Is it ethical to stay in a marriage after love is dead?

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Your question seems to presuppose that love is the only reason to be in a marriage. It may be the main reason that one gets married, but I think that the kind of companionship and interconnection that married couples can generate, as a result of living together and sharing lives for so long, can become very important (not to mention the family relations that entangle, as well--for example, with children and in-laws). Perhaps what I am trying to say might be put another way: I think that "love" comes in many "flavors," and it is certainly conceivable that the "flavor" that led a couple to get married might fade completely, while being replaced by one or more other "flavors" that serve equally well to preserve the relationship in a valuable way. If a couple finds that there comes to be no love of any kind--or worse--then I can certainly see why it would make good sense for them to divorce.

Given the social and economic realities of our world, other considerations apply here, as well: There may be fairly powerful social or economic reasons to remain in a "loveless" marriage, too. Like most real world situations, the world of marriage can be considerably more complex than a single consideration can determine.

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