Paedophile rights- Why not?

[Lilac]

We have some very nice liberal people here on politics.ie who call for an unlimited personal freedom of choice!
Gay marriage- yeah, why not?
Polygamy- yeah, why not?

Question: What about paedophile rights?

C'mon, we are talking about human rights and endless liberalism and paedophiles are "only" human beings, who are attracted to children- the younger and full of life, the better!
Don't they deserve the same rights as everyone else?

[smiffy]

Because children are incapable of giving informed consent, so any sex with them by definition involves coercion.

[Pidge]

You're pushing the idea a bit much here. I can see your point, but the difference here is consent. When two homosexual people want to get married they are both of the age of majority and have a right to choose their own future.
If a couple both consent to a polygamous realtionship, the same thing applies.
When a person of the age of majority chooses to have sex or other such things with someone under the age of 16, they are not doing it with the consent of a legally recognised adult. Even if the child wants it to happen, the State has deemed that they are not of a sufficient age to judge whether or not this relationship is suitable.

[Lilac]

Because children are incapable of giving informed consent, so any sex with them by definition involves coercion.

Who says that?
Maybe some children even enjoy it?

[Pidge]

Also, your poll is flawed. To be a paedophile is not a criminal act, acting upon those desires is.

[Badnarik_Eire]

You don't understand Liberalism...can do as you like as long as you are not harming others.
I'll grant you your rant as I just had mine on the thread we were talking on.

Howevr there are people out there who do advocate it

To state the obvious:

children (ie under 16) are unable to understand the physical, emotional, and social consequences of sexual acts with a 50 year old (sick face) and are therefore unable to give informed consent;

sexual acts can involve coercion and abuse of power, which can break bonds of trust;

sexual acts can, for girls at puberty, lead to pregnancy, a condition for which they may well be unprepared;

[Lilac]

Also, your poll is flawed. To be a paedophile is not a criminal act, acting upon those desires is.

To be a phaedophile is not a criminal act?
Are you sure?
And why do they land in prison then?

[Badnarik_Eire]

Acting on it includes looking at child porn as it was illegally obtained.

[Pidge]

Also, your poll is flawed. To be a paedophile is not a criminal act, acting upon those desires is.

To be a phaedophile is not a criminal act?
Are you sure?
And why do they land in prison then?

Oh, its only a technical point. A paedophile is "an adult who is sexually attracted to children". That isn't illegal, or in my view wrong. Lots of people probably have these feeling, are ashamed and restrain themselves from acting on it in any way. Whats the problem with that?

[Lilac]

You don't understand Liberalism...can do as you like as long as you are not harming others.

Excellent argument!
But many paedophiles don't even realize that they are harming those children and cry in the court: "But I didn't want to do any harm to them- I would never hurt them!"
And very young children don't even know what it's about: They are recieving toys and their paedophile abusers treat them very good!
Some paedophiles don't even practise sexual acts on children: for instance, watching them, bathing them, etc. erects them!