An older couple, married since 2007, has been under some scrutiny due to a scandal that involved the husband, who is an former Iowa lawmaker, having sex with his wife while she was in the nursing home. The catch? His wife had dementia and was deemed mentally incapable to provide consent. The case is currently moving along, but unfortunately his wife had passed away a few months back in August (Associated Press, 2015). The question is whether or not the husband’s actions fall under sexual abuse. Either way, the husband took it upon himself to engage in sexual interactions with his wife knowing the condition she was under. Therefore, the ex-lawmaker sought and acted in his own pleasure, but did his act result in his wife’s pain by not having
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It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do as well as what we shall do” in which he wrote in his Principles of Morals and Legislation in 1789. Also associated with Bentham and his ideas was the hedonic calculus. Under this idea, one makes his or her choice based on what one feels as the greatest pleasure for the greatest number and outweighs the pain. Those that follow the hedonistic calculus may also believe in taking risks when one is faced with an unknown happiness result (Tyler, 2005). The risk is due to the fact that one does not know for sure the amount of happiness that will be experienced. Tyler’s 2005 article on utilitarianism discusses if two options are presented to a person and one yields a 50% chance of happiness while the other option only yields 30% chance, then a person would choose the option that may produce that 50% chance. However, an option may only produce 25% and that is where a person will risk taking the …show more content…
There were instances where she “washed her hands in dirty water, forgot how to eat a hamburger and thought her longtime first husband, Slim, was still alive” according to an article by Tony Leys (2015). She had also scored a zero on a standard cognitive test in which an individual who scores below an eight “signifies severe impairment” (Leys, 2015). Due to tests like the standard cognitive test and her past actions, she was “no longer mentally capable of consenting” (“Iowa Man Charged With Sex Abuse of Wife Says She Consented,” 2015). Donna’s husband, Henry Rayhons, was charged with a sex abuse felony for “allegedly having sex with his wife…in a nursing home last May after the staff told him her dementia had left her incapable of consenting” (Leys, 2015). A sex abuse charge in the third degree was issued because “the two parties are not living together as husband and wife and if one person ‘is suffering from a mental defect or incapacity which precludes giving consent’” (“Iowa Man Charged With Sex Abuse of Wife Says She Consented,” 2015). Henry claims that he would not touch his wife if she did not want him to, but not being able to consent means a person is not able to think clearly about the consequences that could be attached to an action. According to the ABC News article, Henry also considered the doctor’s order that his wife could not consent as advice in addition to changing his story from not
It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do as well as what we shall do” in which he wrote in his Principles of Morals and Legislation in 1789. Also associated with Bentham and his ideas was the hedonic calculus. Under this idea, one makes his or her choice based on what one feels as the greatest pleasure for the greatest number and outweighs the pain. Those that follow the hedonistic calculus may also believe in taking risks when one is faced with an unknown happiness result (Tyler, 2005). The risk is due to the fact that one does not know for sure the amount of happiness that will be experienced. Tyler’s 2005 article on utilitarianism discusses if two options are presented to a person and one yields a 50% chance of happiness while the other option only yields 30% chance, then a person would choose the option that may produce that 50% chance. However, an option may only produce 25% and that is where a person will risk taking the …show more content…
There were instances where she “washed her hands in dirty water, forgot how to eat a hamburger and thought her longtime first husband, Slim, was still alive” according to an article by Tony Leys (2015). She had also scored a zero on a standard cognitive test in which an individual who scores below an eight “signifies severe impairment” (Leys, 2015). Due to tests like the standard cognitive test and her past actions, she was “no longer mentally capable of consenting” (“Iowa Man Charged With Sex Abuse of Wife Says She Consented,” 2015). Donna’s husband, Henry Rayhons, was charged with a sex abuse felony for “allegedly having sex with his wife…in a nursing home last May after the staff told him her dementia had left her incapable of consenting” (Leys, 2015). A sex abuse charge in the third degree was issued because “the two parties are not living together as husband and wife and if one person ‘is suffering from a mental defect or incapacity which precludes giving consent’” (“Iowa Man Charged With Sex Abuse of Wife Says She Consented,” 2015). Henry claims that he would not touch his wife if she did not want him to, but not being able to consent means a person is not able to think clearly about the consequences that could be attached to an action. According to the ABC News article, Henry also considered the doctor’s order that his wife could not consent as advice in addition to changing his story from not