I think the idea that any individual, regardless of age, mental status, criminal background, or influence of substances, cannot consent, to be a horrifying, Orwellian nightmare. You want to make consensual acts crimes in spite of their consensual nature, feel free. Most laws are like that. But to say, openly and officially, that a a seventeen year old with a job and driver’s license can’t consent, is inhuman. You know who else couldn’t legally consent? Slaves. People are people. We control our own lives. Parents are an important guidepost in young people’s lives, but even with comprehensive legal authority over their children, that doesn’t meant they own or control every aspect of their lives or bodies. Their children are going to do what they are going to do. And outside of extreme abuse, such as by locking your child in a dungeon 24/7, or keeping them in a strait jacket, you simply can’t avoid that fact of life. The point is, humans consent. It’s a basic, fundamental part of bei...