2003.001 Sexual Ethics and Criminal Law, Lester ... - Francis Bennion

ce group on reforming sex o€ences law. 10 He thinks that
O
of responses received during the consultation period its
regardless
should form the basis for a new Sexual O€ences
recommendations
I wonder? Judging from his account, the report seems redolent
Act.
the sex negativism condemned in my book The Sex Code.
of
is just one example. The report proposes ``a speci®c o€ence
Here
sexual activity with a person with such severe mental disability
of
there is no capacity to consent to sexual relations''. The e€ect
that
this would be that such a person, in addition to the su€ering
of
from his or her mental condition, would be permanently
arising
of lawful sexual ful®lment. Obviously the researches
deprived
by Mr Bowley's group did not extend to the lengthy
undertaken
my book gave to this point, ending with the following
treatment
conclusion:
consent by a mentally incapacitated person to a sexual
Apparent
cannot be taken as true consent where the incapacity is too
act
to permit the person to understand the full emotional and
great
signi®cance of the act. Where however such a person
ethical
otherwise be condemned to involuntary celibacy or chastity
would
is not immoral to a€ord them sexual ful®lment with no more
it
their apparent consent, since in such circumstances the usual
than
of true consent is prevented from applying. 11
requirement
Bowley and his colleagues might like to be glancing through
Mr
book, which was an attempt to frame a code of modern secular
my
The white paper on which the Bill is based was in turn based on Setting the
10
(2000) and Review of Part I of the Sex Offenders Act1997 (2001).
Boundaries
11 See para. 18 in Annex Two to this report.
sexual ethics. Ethics must always underlie law.
12