"In order to answer the question about the conditions under which sex is morally wrong, we need to know what it means to consent to sex. “Consent” is shorthand for “voluntary informed consent.” Agreeing to have sex does not count as consenting to an entire sexual encounter for three reasons. 1. Consent given prior to a sexual encounter can be withdrawn at any time. 2. Agreeing to have sex can be involuntary. Submission to a sexual encounter is involuntary when it is forced upon a dissenting person by the use of physical force, threat or incapacitating behavior. It is admittedly difficult to specify what exactly counts as threatening or incapacitating behavior. A dissenting person who is too shocked by the other person’s sexual approach to move away or resist is incapacitated, even if she does not feel threatened. 3. The person may not be in a position to consent. Children, for example, are unable to consent to sex. This is not because minors are unable to consent to anything. Certainly, if a parent asks an average six-year old whether she would like the parent to brush her hair, and the six-year old responds that she does, her agreement counts as consent. Six-year olds are normally old enough to understand what it means for someone to brush their hair, and hair brushing does not ordinarily have unforeseen and potentially harmful consequences. So, not only is the child voluntarily entering into the interaction, she also understands the nature and consequences of the action. A six-year old cannot ordinarily consent to sex, however, as she is not in a position to understand what the act entails. Similar remarks apply to at least some mentally challenged individuals."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Berit Brogaard, "Why Agreement to Sex Is Not Consent", Psychology Today, (March 31, 2018).
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Consent
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Consent
55 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Consent →
Related Quotes
"Similarly wobbly views on sex and adolescents—or rather sex with adolescents—are on profligate historical display els…"
"Rubenfeld is right that most instances in which one of the parties having sex (or both) have failed to give consent t…"
"Isabel Grant, a law professor at the University of British Columbia, agreed that the way the Supreme Court rules coul…"
"“Consent is ‘Do you want to have sex this time with this person?’ And we can’t imply that from the fact that you’ve h…"
"The jurisprudence of this Court also establishes that there is no substitute for the complainant’s actual consent to …"
"As stated, informed consent is both a legal obligation and an ethical principle. The requirement that medical provide…"
"These two arguments for inalienability, one looking to coercion and the other to invidious symbolism, begin to merge …"
"“In one sense of the word” observes Robert Lee Hales, “no labor is “involuntary"-not even that of a slave. It is perf…"
"Like Bailey, women who consent to the risk of pregnancy do so within a complex field of pressures and constraints. Mo…"
"Narrated 'Aisha: I said, "O Allah's Apostle! A virgin feels happy." He said, "Her consent is (expressed by) her silen…"