College Professor Doesn't Seem To Understand Why It's Wrong To Have Sex With A 12 Year Old

From, The Post Millenial- An SUNY Fredonia professor, Stephen Kershnar, was exposed on social media for making the argument that pedophilia may not be as wrong as society deems it, questioning the deeply held societal understanding that it’s wrong for adults to have sex with children.

Kershnar, who teaches libertarian philosophy and applied ethics at the university, made an argument for pedophilia, the professor, who teaches philosophy at the state-funded university, argued: “Imagine that an adult male wants to have sex with a 12-year-old girl. Imagine that she’s a willing participant. A very standard, very widely held view is that there’s something deeply wrong about this. It’s wrong independent of it being criminalized.”

“It’s not obvious to me that it’s in fact wrong,” he continued. “I think this is a mistake. And I think exploring that why it’s a mistake will tell us not only things about adult/sex and statutory rape and also fundamental principles of morality.”

“There’s a couple of things to say here,” he continued. “One is even if you are looking for a threshold. Let’s say there’s a threshold. I’m making this number up, but let’s say it’s at age 8. Still, that tells you that some adult/sex is permissible. Second, the notion that it’s wrong even with a one-year-old is not quite obvious to me.”