Court: No Sex for Dummies

(London, England) A 41-year-old man, known only as Alan, has been banned from having sex because his IQ is too low.

A judge in the Court of Protection ruled that Alan, with an IQ of 48, does not have the mental capacity to engage in sexual relations.

Ultimately, the judge concluded that the capacity to consent to sex remains act-specific and requires an understanding and awareness of:

1. The mechanics of the act

2. That there are health risks involved, particularly the acquisition of sexually transmitted and sexually transmissible infections

3. That sex between a man and a woman may result in the woman becoming pregnant (para 43)

Alan, according to the medical expert, “had no understanding at all of heterosexual coitus” but he did understand “the mechanics of mutual masturbation and anal sex, with persons of either gender.” But as regards the latter, he did not understand the health risks involved.

Alan did not therefore have the capacity to consent and engage in sexual relations. He would have to be supervised for the time being and prevented from future sexual activity by the council.

Okay, can someone tell me how this ruling is going to be enforced? Is nanny-state Britain going to create a sex-prohibition police force?

Nevertheless, I suggest it is entirely inappropriate to link sex with IQ.

IQ refers to the content and capabilities of the human brain and it's been theoretically-accepted that there is a separate, unrelated little brain which governs sexual urges in a person. Read a newspaper. It's not even arguable that sex and intelligence have little to do with each other.