Consent has been a philosophically relevant topic since the formation of structured society. Consent is a form of giving one’s word or one’s approval on various topics in everyday life. Consent can pertain to things, such as real estate contracts, business deals, or trade. All of these can be engaged in with partial to entire comprehension. However, there is one form of consent that requires more than just a partial comprehension to engage in. It is imperative to understand the difference between the two forms of consent. Unlike consent to the above terms, which society and governing bodies do not require full comprehension to enter into, sexual desire can challenge one’s reasoning and can compel one to have such desires even when the behavior is risky or dangerous towards oneself or another, and potentially deals with physical, societal, and psychological harm (Soble 2013, 303). It is morally reprehensible to obtain consent to sexual activity from someone who is unable to comprehend what is being asked. To understand the important difference between sexual consent and consent, one must first understand consent. Consent consists of several different layers. According to philosopher, David Arhard, consent has four different claims (Archard 1998, 3-4). The first claim being that consent alters the relationship between two people and makes a difference in the situation (Archard 1998, 3-4). Secondly, it can be morally transformative, meaning that consent has the power to change or transform the nature of the situation (Archard 1998, 3-4). Thirdly, consent needs to be given with a positive and intentional act; consent is an “act rather than a state of mind” (Archard 1998, 3-4). Lastly, and most importantly, consent deals heavily... ... middle of paper ... ...tential physical, psychological, or societal harms that could come to them. Consent to contracts, real estate agreements, and trade are societally speaking not morally reprehensible to engage in without full comprehension. However, as demonstrated above entering into any form of sexual consent has the potential to include exploitation, coercion, and lack of reasoning which can lead to potentially severe physical, psychological, or society harms to an individual. No person, especially not those with diminished mental capacity, should be forced to deal with the potentially horrific repercussions of not making this distinction. It is important to recognize the morally reprehensible nature of the act of obtaining sexual consent and defining it as distinctly different from other forms of consent, in order to protect individuals from the potential harms described above.
Throughout the article, Saunders often discusses presumed consent. Presumed consent is the idea that we can assume that a person’s organs may be used and that this permits us to take them as if they had consented to organ donation, unless they have registered an objection. This is challenging because it implies that consent is a mental attitude – something like approval – instead of an act. Saunders argues that if consent is necessary to be given, then it cannot merely be presumed when no act has taken
THE ISSUE OF CONSENT In acknowledgement of the particular difficulties involved in the prosecution of rape cases and the consequent poor conviction rates, a central alteration in the law on sexual offences concerned the meaning of consent and the manner in which it should be established in a court of law. Previously, the Se... ... middle of paper ... ... y asking the reasonable person what may by its nature be sexual begs the question. Into what nature of the term sexuality are we asking people to enquire?
away workers’ ability to consent. It could easily be argued that consent cannot be given within
Rubin bemoans the oppressive laws that tell people what sexual practices are to be accepted and unaccepted, as if laws were to be obeyed - a presumption that already constitutes a particular type of subject in relation to a kind of power (the power of/in Law). Because we are so oppressed, unable to choose between sexual practices, we should give up these overrated relics of good sexuality and bad. Instead let everyone do anything, so long as they practice the vaunted ritual of consent. And while consent may be hard to locate, and does have problems, it should still b...
The age of consent varies among cultures. In the American culture we find that most states legally define the age of consent at 18 regardless of sex according to the 2011 Global Justice Initiative. For the purposes of this paper, sex is defined as being biologically female or male. In the Chinese culture, the National
Recent developments in standard of care and professional relationship with patients have made law fundamental to the study and practice of nursing. At every stage of patients care, law helps bring up to date nursing practice and it is essential that nurses understand the legal and ethical implications of law in their nursing profession (Griffith and Tengrah, 2011). The purpose of this essay is to discuss the concept of consent in relation to the role of the nurse. This will aim at demonstrate ethical and legal implication of consent on nursing practice and professional working. In the Code (2008, cited in Griffith and Tengrah, 2011) the Nursing and Midwifery Council set standards for nursing professional to follow. Among the rules is the requirement of nurses to obtain consent before care is given.
ABSTRACT: A commonly accepted criticism of the social contract approach to justifying political authority targets the notion of hypothetical consent. Hypothetical contracts, it is argued, are not binding; therefore hypothetical consent cannot justify political authority. I argue that although hypothetical consent may not be capable of creating political obligation, it has the power to legitimate political arrangements.
There are many topics nowadays that are still hard to talk about openly. Though we’ve opened the door on many controversies, some of the simplest parts of life can be the hardest to discuss. For most of us, sex in particular can be a taboo topic, which may be the reason why so many children and teens are misinformed on the inner workings of sexual relationships and how they develop as we grow and mature. For some adolescents, this can lead to an unhealthy fixation on the concept of sex, and in some cases, lead them to take action on a situation they do not fully understand. Sexual offenses are perceived as some of the most heinous crimes, but how could our views be affected if those acts were performed by a teenager? We may sometimes consider that they are the same as adult sex offenders; however our judgment can often be clouded by our lack of understanding. Adolescent sex offenders are different from adult sex offenders, are treated in a different way, and often have very different circumstances of their crime.
The three articles above that discussed sexual consent through the lens of sexual coercion, internal and external consent and benevolent sexism have demonstrated that there is a variety of forms that sexual consent is needed in order for sexual assault to be prevented from occurring. Also it demonstrated that sexual consent already being ambiguous does not help in establishing prevention of sexual assault, when the no is not clear, since it needs to be expressed both externally through verbal an nonverbal cues but also be internal consent from the person understanding that they are giving their affirmative consent. This is similar to the article about the films, where in Dr Brod’s lecture explained that not only the person giving consent needed to be aware of how they were giving but the one’s accepting it had to know how they got it. There is a need to understand that unless people start to gain knowledge about sexual consent, the situations will be misunderstood and sexual assault can
It was once acceptable for men to have full control over women, declaring when they will marry and when they will have children. However, over the past centuries, women have established a place in society, proving themselves much more than someone's property. This is why the word “rape” today is not taken lightly. According to findlaw.com, “Rape generally refers to non-consensual sexual intercourse that is committed by physical force, threat of injury, or other duress.” When one does not give consent to sex, it is considered a felony, possibly putting the rapist in jail. Contrary to sexual assault, “Sex is reified as penile-vaginal intercourse while an extremely diverse group of pleasurable and sexually stimulating activities are dismissively relegated to the category of foreplay...” (Reinholtz, Muehlenhard, Phelps, & Satterfield, 1995.) Although consented sexual intercourse is much more out in the open and accepted in society, the problem of rape is still very relevant behind the scenes.
The term “statutory rape” is used when the government considers people under a certain age to be unable to give consent to sex and therefore consider sexual contact with them to be a rape. The age at which individuals are considered to give consent is called the age of consent. The age of consent can ranging from thirteen to twenty-one, depending on the limits set by each state in accordance with local standards of morality. Even sex that violates the age-of-consent laws but is neither violent nor physically forced is described as statutory rape. In most jurisdictions, the expressions “under-age sex” or “sex with a minor” are more commonly used.
In today’s heterosexual and patriarchal society sex and sexual desires revolve around men, and Hoagland sets out seven patterns showing how this is the case. Sex is thought of as a “powerful and uncontrollable urge” and male sexuality therefore is a basic component to male health, sexual acts show male conquest and domination, sexual freedom gives men total access to and over women, rape is, by this logic, natural and women who resist a man’s advances are “‘frigid’”, sex involves losing control and sexual desire, when described as erotic, “involves a death wish (eros)”. The bottom line is that in today’s heterosexual and patriarchal society sex is all about men having a natural power over women; sex involves a total loss of control which creates a split between reason and emotion since being in control is a matter of reason controlling emotions, “we tend to believe that to be safe we must be rational and in control but to...
In the first paragraph, I will explain what constitutes rape and the variations of relationships in which rape is committed. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (the Act) came into force on the 1st May 2004. The purpose of the Act was to strengthen and modernise the law on sexual offences, whilst improving preventative measures and the protection of individuals from sexual offenders. The 2003 Act also changes the law about consent and belief in consent. Convicting a person of rape is defined under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 s1, it is as follows; “A person (A) commits an offence if: he intentionally penetrates the vagina, anus or mouth of another person with his penis, if person (B) doe...
Sexual assault is a term that is used interchangeably with the word rape. The decision on whether or not to use the term rape or sexual assault is made by a state’s jurisdiction. Sexual assault is more readily used in an attempt to be more gender neutral (National Victim Center). Sexual assault can be most easily described as forced or unconsentual sexual intercourse. The individual that is performing these acts on the victim may either be a stranger or an acquaintance. In 1994, 64.2 percent of all rapes were committed by someone the offender had previously known (Ringel, 1997). Regardless, this type of crime can have extreme effects on the victim.
Kaplan, Margo. “Taking Pedophilia Seriously.” Washington & Lee Law Review, vol. 72, no. 1, 2015, pp. 75–170. Winter2015, EBSCOHost, web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=10&sid=db86a6e1-6532-405a-87b8-724a12314039@sessionmgr4010.