Persons with profound intellectual disability and their right to sex

Abstract

This article discusses sexuality and sexual rights of persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. I will address the issue by reflecting on my own previous negligence about the issue, and unpack the ethics of sexuality of persons with profound intellectual disability in the light of ethnographic observation and interview data. I will discuss the significance of cognitive and communicative capacities as regards sexual rights as well as the boundaries of ethically justified facilitation of sex. I will also analyse the definition of sex and its ethical implications. Finally, I will offer some reflections on how we should consider more carefully in research the sexuality of persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities in order to enhance in practice their sexual fulfilment.

Keywords:

• profound intellectual disability
• sex
• sexuality
• ethics
• intimacy

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Ben Curtis, Eva Feder Kittay, Don Kulick, Reetta Mietola, Sonja Miettinen, Tom Shakespeare and Nick Watson for their comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Academy of Finland