Conference presentation
Consenting to relationships and sex: legal issues for children with intellectual disabilities
Law and Love [In and Beyond Pandemic Times], 2021 (Sunshine Coast, Australia, 29-Nov-2021 - 02-Dec-2021)
Law, Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia
2021
Abstract
The law related to decision-making for children with intellectual impairments, such as Down syndrome, can be complicated and confusing. The law usually protects children from the consequences of making decisions, requiring parents to exercise decision-making power on their behalf. When a child reaches the age to consent to sexual intercourse, they are granted that autonomy to consent themselves. However, when a child has an intellectual disability, it is often difficult to determine their capacity to make decisions. There are many legal and ethical issues which a couple with intellectual disabilities might face, specifically in relation to their decisions to form relationships and engage in sexual activity. The law, in some circumstances, permits interference by others in decision making for children with intellectual impairments, including intervention in their relationships, and preventing pregnancy. There is a need to balance their decision-making autonomy about their own life with protectionist principles to ensure their best interests are considered. The social model of disability requires that we consider the socially constructed systems and influences and how these constructs influence the treatment and experiences of people with disability. An important perspective to considering issues for children with intellectual impairments in the influences on their relationships, is that the law and social attitudes are constructed, and may have been constructed from an ableist perspective, or with a view to framing disability as pitiful or needing charity. A critical disability lens brought to the circumstances of young people with intellectual impairments in loving and sexual relationships challenges the socially constructed law and attitudes.
Details
- Title
- Consenting to relationships and sex: legal issues for children with intellectual disabilities
- Authors
- Dominique Moritz (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Law and SocietySimone Pearce (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Law and Society
- Conference details
- Law and Love [In and Beyond Pandemic Times], 2021 (Sunshine Coast, Australia, 29-Nov-2021 - 02-Dec-2021)
- Publisher
- Law, Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia
- Organisation Unit
- School of Law and Society; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99583808902621
- Output Type
- Conference presentation
Metrics
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