Sexual Freedom Rights for Adolescents? A Rejoinder to Agnes Tellings

Y

5

Freedom; Adolescents; Ethics; Sexuality; Moral Values; Adolescent Development; Competence; Social Attitudes; Developmental Stages; Civil Rights; Decision Making; Child Rearing; Parent Role; Parent Responsibility; Foreign Countries; Self Determination

10.1080/03057240902792728

0305-7240

Agnes Tellings rightly observes that adolescents, if compared with pre-pubescent children, are much more capable of making their own choices and therefore should be granted much more freedom to arrange their own lives. However, the capacity of adolescents to make prudent choices still seems to be below the threshold of competence. Therefore, interpreting their growing freedom in terms of freedom "rights" (or rights of self-determination) seems to be mistaken. If the freedoms granted to adolescents can be explained in terms of rights at all, they could better be understood as rights to experiment. And even if some of the freedoms adolescents might have are not experimental, parents still retain the authority to veto their choices, albeit only for pressing reasons.

As Provided

6

2009

EJ865643