2003.001 Sexual Ethics and Criminal Law, Lester ... - Francis Bennion
2003.001 Sexual Ethics and Criminal Law, Lester ... - Francis Bennion
2003.001 Sexual Ethics and Criminal Law, Lester ... - Francis Bennion
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e clear about its ethical foundation. Total absence of any such<br />
to<br />
is the principal defect of this Bill.<br />
clarity<br />
The Bill proposes not one new sex crime but many. In fact there are<br />
14.<br />
fewer than ®fty-seven varieties of new sexual o€ences contained<br />
no<br />
the Bill. Some, but not many, replace existing o€ences that<br />
in<br />
be abolished by it. Various current enactments laying down<br />
would<br />
human sexual behaviour in Engl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> Wales is to be<br />
when<br />
as criminal, many dating from the distant past, are to be<br />
treated<br />
away. 6 The Bill introduces a much larger raft of new criminal<br />
swept<br />
to replace them, which in turn is likely to subsist on our<br />
o€ences<br />
book for many years to come. So the promulgation of the<br />
statute<br />
is an important development in the life of our nation, which we<br />
Bill<br />
to judge with close attention <strong>and</strong> a great deal of caution. Sex<br />
need<br />
a vital matter for every human being, <strong>and</strong> we must not get it<br />
is<br />
in this enterprise. The criminal law has coercive e€ect.<br />
wrong<br />
who fall foul of it may be imprisoned for many years. Even<br />
People<br />
that does not happen, they may lose their reputation <strong>and</strong><br />
if<br />
in the community. So we have to be very careful here. This<br />
st<strong>and</strong>ing<br />
One problem with testing the Bill against our nation's morals <strong>and</strong><br />
15.<br />
as emphatically needs to be done, is that the nation is now<br />
values,<br />
This means those among its people have many<br />
multicultural.<br />
sets of morals <strong>and</strong> values, some directly opposed to one<br />
di€erent<br />
Many are based on various religions, mainly Christian,<br />
another.<br />
Hindu or Jewish. Yet the majority of our people are not<br />
Muslim,<br />
adherents of any particular faith <strong>and</strong> would be classed by an<br />
close<br />
assessor as secular in their values. In a democracy the<br />
impartial<br />
must prevail, which indicates that the Government's<br />
majority<br />
new sex laws should be based upon secular, rather than<br />
proposed<br />
ideals <strong>and</strong> ethics. Moreover they should be western<br />
religious,<br />
values, since those are the ones held by the vast majority of<br />
secular<br />
6 See Schedule 5 to the Bill.<br />
is no light enterprise.<br />
British citizens.<br />
16. The only general basis I can detect for the Bill's proposals is derived<br />
10
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