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27 How. J. Crim. Just. 32 (1988)
A Defence of Sexual Liberty for All Age Groups

handle is hein.journals/hjcj27 and id is 32 raw text is: The Howard journal Vol 27 No 1. Feb 88 ISSN 0265-5527 A Defence of Sexual Liberty for All Age Groups EDWARD BRONGERSMA Doctor of Law (The Netherlands), former Chairman of the Permanent Committee for Justice of the Dutch Senate (the Upper House) Abstract: This paper discusses the concept of an age of consent for sexual relationships, suggesting that some such contacts between adults and children are not harmful and should, therefore, not be punished. Sexual contact between adults and children has been an emotive subject in Western society for a considerable time, and it can be argued that this has often resulted in injustice to the older and younger partners in such relationships. This situation, in which irrationality and prejudice are important influences, is likely to be made worse by the arrival of the scourge of AIDS now adding a physical dimension to the moral panic already so well established. In disussing sexual liberty it is important to remember that all forms of sexual activity have been admired in certain places at certain times. There is not a single act from marital intercourse to mother-son incest, from masturbation to bestiality, that has not been considered praiseworthy in some cultures, or beneficial to health, just as it has been thought objectionable, sinful or unhealthy in other cultural environments (Challot 1972'; Szasz 19822; Churchill 19673). In ancient times no distinction was made between legality and morality. Both emanated from the same authority: the king-priest-judge. How revolutionary the introductibn of the distinction was is well exemplified by the attitude towards homosexuality. What previously had been an atrocious crime meriting atrocious punishment, no less than being burned to death, became suddenly, on a certain day in 1791, in France, entirely legal - and this with the unanimous approval of all the courts of Paris and other cities. The distinction between immorality and unlawfulness is particularly important in the field of sexuality where subjective feelings of disgust and righteousness so easily distort judgment. Wise people may know and take into account that other men and other women will have different sexual predilections and may be sexually excited by individuals or circumstances which hold no attraction for others. But even the wisest man is not able to feel his way into them, to see - for a moment - the world as they see it. 32

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