Mumsnet Talk

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4767106/investigation-into-nursing-home-for-allowing-prostitutes.html

What do you think?

It's also here:

Mail item

I have to agree with the top rated comments there...

..these people are humans and not vegetables and shouldn't be deprived of a sex life if they want one.

What do YOU think?

Good point JustAHolyFool
Why do people ask others' views without stating their own...very odd.

I would wonder the same as others, surely you state your opinion in your OP!

And I think that sex is not a right because someone has "needs".

My opinion is if the participants are consenting adults (disabled or not disabled) then there is no issue.

Legally-competent adults do legal things in their own home; landlord allows them to enjoy privacy of home.
Whether I like said legal activities is neither here nor there.

I worked in nursing homes and although it never happened it wasn't something we could or would try and stop as they were consenting adults.

We did have residents visiting each others rooms though

paying for sex is legal? since when?

A website dedictated to escorts willing to work with the disabled. I am a great believer in the rights of consenting adults to do what they wish with their bodies, and am heartened by the comments so far.

Booyhoo, it is legal to pay for sex, and it is legal to be paid for sex. It is illegal to solicit in a public place and to "kerbcrawl". It is also illegal to control and to profit from the sexual activities of prostitutes. Otherwise, no probs atm.

ah thank you. i knew there was something that was illegal along those lines.

It worries me that so many people who are keen to discuss paid sex, actually know so little about the law surrounding it. Calling for "decriminalising" it, when it's not actually a criminal offense really bugs me.

I'm not including you in that group, Booyhoo, because I have no idea how you feel about the general topic, but I see it time and time again, and it drives me nuts...

<bit of a pedant, but have been accused of being a pimp, a john or a prostitute so many times for saying so...>

Afaik it's only illegal to solicit - ie if a staff member makes the arrangement and/or hands over the money. The visitors a mentally competent adult has to their home, and what they choose to do in private, is not up to the staff to decide

That would not be soliciting. Soliciting is streetwork, attempting to attract custom in public. (NB, advertising on tinterwebz is not soliciting.) It's a public nuisance type of offense.

The staff member making the arrangement could be in trouble, but only if s/he both controls and profits from the prostitute, though I suspect that their conditions of employment might say otherwise.

What consenting adults do in the privacy of their own homes, is up to them.

Sorry, know the theory (never had to act on it thankfully!) but not the terminology

It could, and imo should, be argued that a residential care home is the person's home - why should they have fewer rights just because they have physical or learning support needs?

As I said, it's a bit of a bugbear with me, sorry. But yes, absolutely, residential care is that person's home, and they absolutely have the right to decide what they do in it.

Um, too many "absolutely"s there, but you get the idea.

"and am heartened by the comments so far."

Agree. The readers' comments on both the news articles above are encouraging.

I'm not saying they have a "right" to have sex, btw, but they have the "right" to invite whatever visitors they want.

I don't have an issue with it, its a private matter if a person wants to pay for sex and someone else wants to offer it for sale. I would imagine the payment comes from their own money too and I don't see why they should be prevented doing something they could do in their own home just because they are in a care home. Its not a prison.

No one has the right to sex.

Hiring sex workers because male residents are sexually harassing staff and "groping" them is stupid. Sexual harassment is illegal. No one should have to tolerate that in the work place. If the residents can not restrain themselves from sexually assaulting staff, then the management needs to consider its options because staff have the right to work without harassment. That should result in the resident leaving; not in hiring prostitutes as a reward for illegal behaviour.

I was just watching a discussion of this on The Wright Stuff.

Obviously, its prefectly legal to pay for sex and I guess in theory if someone is housebound and unable to doesn't have a partner then its an option. Yes, we all have needs but its not the same as having the right to sex.

However, I don't have a problem with a person paying a willing(I will say that loosely)prostitute to have sex with them. What is a totally different topic though are those who say there are men so frustrated that they are groping staff.they have no self control.

In actual fact, these men are abusing staff! Its not a natural outlet to maul a stranger because you fancy a shag. Plenty of people go all their lives with no or little sex and they don't die. And what about women? Do they suffer quietly because as we all know their sex drive isn't as strong.

I've been groped plenty of times over the 10 years I worked in nursing homes, however it was never by the compos mentis residents.

Same with the male carers, it's not something just the male patients do

If the patients aren't competent to control themselves from groping staff, how are they competent to consent to sex?

A clear line of departure needs drawn between those who are wilfully abusing staff members of either sex, and those particularly older people with forms of dementia that produce aggressive sexualised behaviour. The dementia causes the behaviour even in people who can still have periods of being time and place oriented. Or "compos mentis"

It might also be a result of unsafe working practises in residential establishments where both staff and patience are forced in to situations which are only barely legal in terms of health and safety but leave both groups open to abuse.