Day 5 Report on Iowa Sexual Assault-Dementia Trial
UPDATE: The jury trial of State of Iowa v. Henry Rayhons is scheduled to continue on Wednesday, April 15. There were no proceedings on Tuesday, April 14. In the meantime, here are additional relevant discussions, from several sources:
- New York Times: Sex, Dementia and a Husband on Trial at Age 78. The electronic version of the NYT on April 14 also carried the following as the Quotation of the Day:
QUOTATION OF THE DAY“So much of aging and so much of being in a long-term care facility is about loss, loss of independence, loss of friends, loss of ability to use your body. Why would we want to diminish that?” DANIEL REINGOLD, chief executive of the Hebrew Home in the Bronx, which pioneered a “sexual rights policy” for residents in 1995. |
- From JUSTIA.Com: When Does an Alzheimer’s Patient Lose the Capacity to Consent to Sex? by Cornell Law Professor Sherry F. Colb.
- From the Washington Post: When the Mind Falters, is Sex A Choice? by Marie-Therese Connolly, a thoughtful opinion piece written in 2009, discussing several challenging scenarios, some involving more casual relationships, or arguably more “extreme” facts, such as a “Wisconsin minister who regularly came to the nursing home to have sex with his comatose wife.”
- From the Huffington Post: Iowa Case Sheds Spotlight on Whether People With Alzheimer’s Can Consent to Sex.
I’ll supplement the “Trial Reports” as additional information becomes available. Check back on Wednesday.