Sex

What constitutes "consent" in sexual matters? Is a person who allows themselves to be tortured and humiliated for an extreme pornographic production consenting if that consent comes from a pressing need such as a payment for a surgery or obtainment of drugs?

Comments

This not my particular area, but I suppose one could define the word "consent" however one pleases -- but if you define it such that it stops applying whenever there are 'pressing needs' then you will probably find that very few actions count as consensual ... And anyway 'needs' only constitute some of the conditions which might take away 'consent' (eg what if physical detemrinism is true, that every action we perform we are necessitated to perform by virtue of the laws of nature -- do these count as consensual actions in any sense that matters?) .... You probably couldn't begin to define 'consent' in the absence of further concepts such as 'freedom' and 'responsibility' too -- so probably one useful way to proceed might be to begin making a list of all those factors which 'constrain' or 'limit' our autonomy in our actions, and then seeing if it's even meaningful to determine a 'cut off point' such that once certain factors are present, 'consent' is lost .......

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