Monday, January 31, 2005
Don't stop under-age kids from having sex - give them a hand, says medical journal
An editorial in the British Medical Journal of 15 January says sexually active sub-16 year olds should be helped to enjoy "caring and safe relationships". The advice comes from epidemiologist Caroline Free, who says more than a quarter of young people in Britain are sexually active before they are 16 and health services should be helping these young people. Free says that to promote sexual health in adolescents, services need to "offer advice and interventions that deal with the needs of young men, improve compliance with the use of oral contraceptive pills, inform young people about long acting contraceptives, and promote dual use of contraceptives and condoms".
But she has been taken to task by Dr Ellen Grant, author of The Bitter Pill, who points to many dangers of hormonal contraception for young women. "Under age sex is a form of child abuse and it is no help to add on biochemical abuse from steroid hormones," says Dr Grant.
It is also astounding that Free is apparently advocating that sex at any age is good, as long as it is "safe" (whatever that means). This totally ignores the damage that under-age sex does to kids in a host of different ways, well documented in numerous social studies. Has the medical profession become totally amoral?
An editorial in the British Medical Journal of 15 January says sexually active sub-16 year olds should be helped to enjoy "caring and safe relationships". The advice comes from epidemiologist Caroline Free, who says more than a quarter of young people in Britain are sexually active before they are 16 and health services should be helping these young people. Free says that to promote sexual health in adolescents, services need to "offer advice and interventions that deal with the needs of young men, improve compliance with the use of oral contraceptive pills, inform young people about long acting contraceptives, and promote dual use of contraceptives and condoms".
But she has been taken to task by Dr Ellen Grant, author of The Bitter Pill, who points to many dangers of hormonal contraception for young women. "Under age sex is a form of child abuse and it is no help to add on biochemical abuse from steroid hormones," says Dr Grant.
It is also astounding that Free is apparently advocating that sex at any age is good, as long as it is "safe" (whatever that means). This totally ignores the damage that under-age sex does to kids in a host of different ways, well documented in numerous social studies. Has the medical profession become totally amoral?
