I'm really disturbed by this. I have a severely handicapped child. The idea of someone telling him to drop his trousers and him doing it because he doesn't know any better -- getting children he can't understand are his -- not understanding that any of this is supposed to connect to love -- learning to Do It and not getting that you can't do it at the bus stop -- it's not just horrifying to me, it seems self-evidently horrifying.

I imagine a cognitive dissonance in those who would seriously consider that it's wrong for the responsible guardian to forbid sex to such a person. At some level, we know that this is a part of adult life, not mere entertainment, like ice cream but way better -- or we wouldn't be talking so much here about informed consent. You don't get informed consent before giving someone an ice cream sandwich.

Isn't this dissonance inherent in the modern view of sex? We forbid it to children. We have reasons, mostly about protecting them. Those reasons surely apply to the severely mentally handicapped as well.