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DAWN - Why do only women require a cancellation of sealing after a divorce in order to be resealed to someone else?

JOEL - This policy probably stems from the doctrine of plural marriage where a man can be sealed to several women but not a woman to several men. This is why the sealing of the woman must be canceled.
Plural marriage (performed as a temple sealing) is a real doctrine of the church as described in D&C 132. We have simply been commanded to not practice the physical earthly aspects of it (ie. living together) in mortality at this time. But because it is still a real doctrine of the church, the man does not have to have his sealing canceled when being sealed to a second wife. Men do have to get First Presidency approval if they want to be sealed to someone after a divorce from someone they were sealed to.

The doctrine still has spiritual validity in terms of eternal life for those who did practice it in the early days of the church and are still sealed to those women in the eternity. Obviously a divorced man or woman will probably not want to be with his/her former spouse in the eternity, and they won't have to. If they can't live together in this life they will not be allowed to be together in the next life, whether they are still sealed to each other or not. But they will always enjoy the blessings of the sealing regardless of what ultimately happens, so long as they remain righteous and worthy of exaltation. When a sealing happens we are not just sealed to one person, we are sealed into the eternal family of God and we are not divorced from that or lose the blessings of it, unless we lose our exaltation through unrighteous living and unrepented sins (eg. excommunication).

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