To Pedophile-Tolerating Psychiatrists: Make Our Day

Most people that I know view pedophilia as the ultimate in evil perversion. That's why it is so surprising that there is a growing faction among psychiatrists advocating that we at least tolerate the practice of adult/child sexual relations.

At least two pro-pedophilia books made it into psychiatric and even mainstream public distribution channels last year; at this writing, both are available on Amazon.com. One is "Harmful to Minors: the Perils of Protecting Children from Sex", by Judith Levine and Jocelyn Elders (the Clinton administration's controversial Surgeon General). Their book argues that sexual abstinence for children and minors is an American "right-wing" idea that can do more harm than good.

"Understanding Loved Boys and Boy Lovers," by David L. Riegel, tries to sell the viewpoint of the North American Man Boy Love Association. NAMBLA is best known for the motto, "sex before eight or it's too late."

Now the American Psychiatric Association is discussing taking the next step in the campaign to legitimize pedophilia. According to a June 11, 2003 article on CNSNews.com, "…the American Psychiatric Association (APA) recently sponsored a symposium in which participants discussed the removal of pedophilia from an upcoming edition of the psychiatric manual of mental disorders."

"Participants attending an annual APA convention May 19 in San Francisco proposed removing several long-recognized categories of mental illness – including pedophilia, exhibitionism, fetishism, transvestism, voyeurism and sadomasochism – from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)."

To their credit, the APA also released a "fact sheet" explaining their position that pedophilia is "criminal and immoral." Whatever the motivation of the pro-pedophile faction, the APA intended the discussion to center only on whether the desire to engage in this behavior should be considered a mental illness.

Many child advocates fear that "normalizing" pedophilia will make it more difficult in the future to keep the legal prohibition in place. Linda Nicolosi of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality warned that "If pedophilia is deemed normal by psychiatrists, then how can it remain illegal? It will be a tough fight to prove in the courts that it should still be against the law."

With all due respect to Nicolosi, this is hogwash. We don't have to define an inclination to fraud, rape or murder as a mental illness in order to make those acts illegal. There is no reason to believe that people will accept child molestation simply because psychiatrists don't define pedophilia as a sickness.

On the contrary, I say to the pro-pedophile faction in the APA, "bring it on; make our day!" Regarding pedophilia as a mental illness has had the effect of protecting convicted pedophiles. Rather than enduring the full criminal penalties that are their due, pedophiles are often sentenced to psychiatric treatment. After some quack certifies that a child molester has been "cured," the dangerous predator is often released back into his potential victim pool.

If the mental illness excuse were removed from child molesting cases, these evil perpetrators would be treated strictly as the criminals that they are. Whatever position the APA decides to take, the law should not recognize pedophilia as a sickness.