As lax as our culture is when it comes to sex, it still sees consent as a necessary condition for appropriate sexual behavior. But is consent the only moral criterion for evaluating sexual behavior? In this Ready Reasons video, Karlo explains why it’s not.
Transcript:
As crazy as our culture is when it comes to sex, it still sees consent as a necessary condition for appropriate sexual behavior. And this is a good that we must rejoice in.
But is consent the only moral criterion for evaluating sexual behavior? Here are some reasons why it’s not.
First, we don’t buy this ethical principle when it comes to other behaviors. Take self-injury, for example. We don’t think a so-called transabled person is morally justified in having a doctor render her paraplegic just because she consents to it. That someone says “yes” to cannibalism, as in the case of Armin Meiwes, doesn’t make cannibalism morally permissible.
We’re repulsed at such behaviors because we recognize that they’re bad, and thus should be avoided. But notice that consent is not driving that moral evaluation. What’s in the driver seat is a more fundamental underlying moral theory that says these actions are bad and that we ought not do them.
For consent to have any moral legitimizing power, it requires a pre-existing moral standard that determines which behaviors we’re morally allowed to consent to. You might think of our consent’s moral power as being on loan. It’s currency is derived from a deeper moral standard.
Of course, what that moral standard is would need to be worked out (I claim it’s the natural moral law). But we must admit that there must be a moral framework that gives consent the power to make something morally permissible.
So, if consent has moral significance only on account of a more fundamental moral framework, then it’s futile to appeal to consent alone in establishing the moral permissibility of sexual acts. It’s seeking moral power where no moral power can be found.
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For Catholic Answers, I’m Karlo Broussard. Thanks for watching.