A presentation in the Sexual Rights Committee Symposium in the World Congress of Sexual Health 2013 in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

1. Specialist in sexuality and relationships – since 1969
Ethical Dilemmas
in Promoting Sexual Health in Practice
Tommi Paalanen
Philosopher,
Executive Director,
Sexpo Foundation
Finland

2. Agenda
 Promoting sexual well-being and sexual rights
 Advancing liberal and open sexual culture
Activities
 Counselling, therapy and consultation services
 Training sexologists, sexuality education
 Commenting official documents, making statements
 Supervising the interests of alternative sexuality, gender
and relationships groups
Tommi Paalanen - WAS 2013
Sexpo Foundation

3. Target groups
1. People, who need help from others to manage
2. People, who experience cultural oppression
3. Alternative sexuality, gender and relationships
groups
4. Youth
Tommi Paalanen - WAS 2013
Promoting sexual rights

4. Target groups
1. People, who need help from others to manage
2. People, who experience cultural oppression
3. Alternative sexuality, gender and relationships
groups
4. Youth
Tommi Paalanen - WAS 2013
Promoting sexual rights

5. Tommi Paalanen - WAS 2013
Target groups
mentally disabled
physically disabled
long-term illnesses
mental health problems
aging people
religious communities
ideological communities
ethnic minorities

6. Power dynamics
 Misplaced benevolence
 Misuse of power: knowing better, disregarding interests
 Forbidding or limiting instead of supporting
Cultural oppression
 Restrictive beliefs and attitudes
 Accumulative harms to interests
Value conflicts
Tommi Paalanen - WAS 2013
Common factors

7. Man, 21 years old, mentally disabled
 Lives in a group home, needs some assistance
 Interested in other men
 Wants to watch porn and use sex toys
 Gets easily sexually agitated
Problems
 Porn and sexual contacts are restricted because of
caregivers’ and parents’ attitudes
 Sexual activity is considered harmful
 No sex  agitation increases  more limitations
Tommi Paalanen - WAS 2013
Example

8. Critical questions
 What is really harmful?
 Whose sexuality, whose interests?
 What are the limits of guardianship?
Solutions
 Sex education
 Sexological training
 Ethical rules of the institution and profession
 Pragmatic means  common ends
Tommi Paalanen - WAS 2013
Example

9. Paternalism
 Right to autonomy vs. care
 Limits of autonomy: immediate danger or severe harm
 Right to personal interests and values
 Rights always come first
Interventions
 As limited as possible
 Correclty targeted
 Reasonable rules
 Education and training
Tommi Paalanen - WAS 2013
Philosophical considerations

10. tommi.paalanen@sexpo.fi
Tommi Paalanen - WAS 2013
Thank you!
Milena Mihaylova/Flickr, Creative Commons