Well, true, perhaps in my efforts to express the priority on making a thorough evaluation before making the comittment so that the expectation that dissolution or that either side would consider an alternative as a possibility is as low as practically possible (after all, no one can read the mind of another and truly know their intent), I have overly emphasized the consequence of making a making such a decision and entering into such an arrangment lightly.

There are varying degrees to which my impression of a person's character would diminish, depending on whether it was a poor judgement call up front by picking a bad partner being something that a person could overcome in time, with suitable demonstration that such judgement errors are not serial, vs. someone who was demonstrably insincere to their initial committment and chose to move on, in which case I would say their character flaw is fairly unredeemable.

For instance, to use your example, if I am to see a doctor, I would not ask if he's been divorced, basing my first impression on more moderate criteria as would be germaine to that sort of situation. Now if it should come up that he has in fact been divorced, then depending on what the nature of the separation might be I may or may not decide that his situation warrants seeking someone else's services. This is not to say he isn't well qualified to treat me. In fact, he may be the best doctor in the world, but as a human being he will be lacking in certain qualities I find crucial for me to place my trust in his care for. His expertise is not the thing in question, merely that he has demonstrated he may not utilize the knowledge he possesses to my advantage.

Most of life's mistakes are not important enough or carry the weight that would warrant such adamant scrutiny. My point is, marriage ought to be taken that seriously. If it were by more people, we wouldn't have nearly the number of social problems we have now. I don't know if that is old school or just the product of being forced to experience it over and over.

Having been divorced is not the sole criteria by which I would judge a person, just one of the most important ones. How would you judge a person who allowed their child to be abused, or committed manslaughter, vs a convicted pedophile or serial killer? There are varying degrees of judgement for each category, depending on intent and culpability. From a social perspective, I consider divorce, child abuse, and murder to be about as devastating with respect to like severity.