Edgar Allen Poe married his wife when he was 27 and she was 13 years old. Does it, in your opinion, make him a pedophile? - In todays day and age this would not be acceptable. But Edgar Allen Poe lived in the 1800's. Things were differnet then. Does William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet count as propaganda of pedophilia, considering that it describes an affair between grown-up Romeo and 13-year-old Juliet? - Again a differnet time period... Should those books be banned? No.... We need to learn about history, and litruature. And we should be able to read what we want anyways. Should consensual sex with adult people who suffered brain damage, mental retardation or are just plain immature be banned and punished the same way as pedophilia. - It depends if they are able to actually understand that they concented. Also being immature should not be in the same catagory as brain damage and mental retardation. Should there be a personal maturity test, which would define a persons mental development stage and thus set their personal age of consent? - No... once you are a legal adult (18) your brain should be fully developed enough that you understand the choices that you are making. I.e. if you are an adult say 30 y.o. but unable to make responsible decisions (high credit card debt, bankruptcy, bad GPA at school/college etc, bad public record) others are not allowed to have sex with you just like sex with an underage teen. - No... Your an adult, you can make your own decisions. Just because you make bad ones, that dosen't matter. But if you are 15 y.o. have IQ over 130-150, already finished college and working towards getting your masters/Ph.D., responsible financially, as a citizen etc. you should be allowed to buy alcohol, get married, have sex, join army etc? - I really don't know what I feel on this one...

example if you are in a nursing home for instance let us say employee for example you are NOT allowed to have sex with anyone on the job. so i am just thinking of where sick people are supposed to be. it depends on how ill the person is. i know people in retirement homes depending on the severity are NOT allowed to have sex with other patients even if they agree on it. they are deemed to sick to be able to consent. it is not like they can sneak into each others room even if they are going to die at these hospital or hospice center. i am not sure how sick of mentally handicapped you are talking about. with mental retardation it depends on the severity and whether they can hold a job down or not. if the person is like mildly mentally retarded it is possible for them to have a sex life. now mentally handicapped people can have sex with other mentally handicapped people but it is highly discouraged or whatever meaning most families or government would NOT usually encourage or even allow something like this. back in the old days if they were institutionalized or whatever due to the situation not finding family willing to take care of themselves and them not being able to hold down a job to care for themselves they would sometimes have forced sterilization or whatever so they would not be able to reproduce. that is about histories past. i about they do that type of stuff anymore in the modern world. again i don't have all the facts on this issue but just a generalization on this topic. i would say generally usually yes it is a crime an illegal act to have sex even conscentually with a mentally handicapped person. when you use the word mentally handicapped i am guess you are talking about a disability resulting from thier mental health issues or whatever so in that case i would guess it is a bad idea. now again if it si two sick people both mentally disabled it might be ok or whatever. but even then it depends. just cause you qualify for social security disability for lifetime welfare or qualify part of your life on disability resources that does not mean that you are truly mentally disabled like the way the government has that definition down or whatever. so tis not mental for all mentally ill to qualify under this ruling. you can be in trouble for rape if you agree to have sex with a mentally disabled like you mentioned. now i am guessing when you are talking about the issue you mean like people that are alzheimer/dementia, retarded, cerebal palsy,down syndrome, (certain types of autism like severe cases but not the mild), and just a list of names i don't have all the lists. i a person with no arms and no legs is not deemed mentally handicapped but legally it might be deemed as such i haven't figured if they qualify for such their mouth can say no but they can't fight back so i don't know about those issue. i know people in a coma also count as being unable to consent. so i don't have the long list of diseases that qualify under mentally handicapped or not. generally if people are institutionalized for hospitals stuff your not allowed to have sex with anyone on the job in most parts of the world but then again if employees and patients decided to have sex in a psychiatric faculty they might not actually be in trouble. it is a bad idea on top of just the legal aspects of the situation even if it si not deemed like a sex offense in it self to have sex with ill people in general it is just weird and disgusting i would just advice any normal person away from that idea. if a person wanted to marry a mentally retarded person they might need permission of the guardian of the mentally retarded person like the hospital if the person has no family as guardian or whatever or the family so ti depends who has their guardianship so it might be legally allowed if a NON mentally handicapped person wanted to marry a sick person but i am not sure if they can have sex before they are married. i know that mental retarded people can get married to other intellectually disabled people like themselves but they need like guardian support usually not government or whatever and stuff especially if they can not hold a job this is more so the case of mildly retarded or whatever if it is does happen stuff like that. from my life experience of just weird stories i have heard the way the law is designed is more so on a regards of caution rather then on what is perfectly fair. there are stories of 11 years old choosing to be pregnant they have a story on dr.phil but you can find stories like this on the internet it is rather rare but they will get pregnant with someone of a similar age and it was not rape. so anyways generally most people would be legally penalized to have sex with an 11 year old even if they consented. so weird things do happen. the way the law is designed is to make sure that you date someone with in 2 or 3 years age difference as you or whatever if you are under the age of 18 or whatever. so anyways they can put you on a sex offender registry and penalize you with statury rape or rape even if the minor consented. so this situation definitely falls under that. i 100% believe that most mentally retarded people understand what sex is and that they know when to say no if the situation occurred but legally if they ever agreed to have sex people would assume that the person is mentally retarded or whatever and it is not their fault. just because of the demon children i have dealt with in my life i understand that the law is not perfect but it is created to protect the rights of the weak to help them not be taken advantage of. i am not telling you to break the law. i am just saying some of these mentally retarded or alzheimer patients wanted the situation and someone else is going to be penalized for the error that they both agreed on. i am not saying we should be mean to sick people i am not saying that it is not possible for them to be raped. i am just saying they are humans like everyone else and sometimes when nature calls and has its urges people will do some weird or unnatural things. anyways i am not supporting changing the law or whatever but i do understand it is not always fair to the person who gets penalized. i have never been in a situation like this. i am just saying that even people with brains similar to that of a child but wight eh body of an adult may have natural reactions or desires to that of what any adult would want to pleasure themselves with but in the end it is the person with the mind of the adult who will be penalized if they get caught. anyways that is life that is how our modern world wants to make the situation. anyways i can see why the law sides with the sick severely person because like they don't have money to provide a good job or take care of themselves or they might catch a disease they may not be intelligible enough to use contraception or whatever. anyways they create so much hell for some innocent person on earth but even if they don't get sicker or don't have to deal with reproduction it goes against peoples religious values or whatever and they just fear the person might be cheated on or won't know how to handle themselves in a abusive relationship if it ever comes to be violent to turn to for help. or that it is embarrassing to say that a mentally retarded person has natural emotions like humans like the animal kingdom a desire for love or lust stuff like that. anyways a big point i am trying to make on the issue in addition to answering your question is that even if it is a law or whatever that mentally handicapped people can have sex only in very rare limited circumstances or whatever and that many people can easily be penalized if they dare act in any sexual way with the mentally handicapped if they ever do choose or whatever. i guess the point i am trying to make is just because it is a law meant to protect the vulnerable from being taken advantage of it doesn't mean that these mentally handicapped are angels. in my opinion unless it is real rape so real force to the situation the person could easily understand what is happening and actually want the situation to occur. just cause they are slow on alot of life issues doesn't mean they don't understand something is wrong. i am sure mentally retarded know that rape and killing is wrong. should we not charge a mentally retarded person with rape if they ever did so just because they are legally not able to consent to sex?i personally think a mentally retarded person or mentally handicapped person understands what violence is and should be treated similar to other criminals or whatever. well if they need medicine or if they need isolations like solitary confinement or a mental institution for criminals that is fine or whatever. it is just it is weird to say that the mentally handicapped don't know what sex is or that it is wrong to do or whatever when in reality like i am sure they know that stealing is wrong. so that is why for me it is hard to really empathize with this particular law. now rape or sexual abuse is wrong so if the situation is forced i do think that should be punished or whatever. i do think the sentencing procedure for tho sis usually lighter then real rape anyways even if a person breaks this law or whatever so i guess the law does take that into consideration if force is used or not and sentences based on adding multiple factors or whatever.

Depends on how it came about. You can actually be liable in some situations even if they are not your biological children.

However, this is what you do: you hire an attorney and file a pleading in the case where someone is suing you to provide child support saying that you deny paternity and responsibility. It is up to them to provide proof that you are the parent; usually the court will order a DNA test and the loser pays for it.

And George is wrong. Even if there is an order you can appeal it or ask for a new hearing.

First, consult your attorney.

There are some circumstances in which children are your legal responsibility, even if you are not the biological parent. For example, you are responsible for children you adopt.

If you are married, the presumption is that any children your wife bears are your children. You can overcome that presumption by timely action in court. Consult your attorney.

If you have received a petition to establish paternity, consult your attorney about defending against the claim.

If there is a recent order on paternity and child support, consult your attorney to determine if the order can be appealed. If the order is older, consult your attorney about a lawsuit to review the previous action of the court.

What can you do without the advice of an attorney? Nothing much. These matters are complex.

If an order is already in place, in 20 states, there nothing you can do, period.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5936817_child-paternity-fr...

Take this Quiz on Child Support:

http://child_support_quiz.dads-house.org/

To learn a father's rights, join Dads House in Yahoo Groups. It's free to join, access all materials, and you associate with other fathers going through, and have already gone through, the same issues. We have an Educational Manual that teaches everything that needs to be known in addressing your legal issues. Mention your question here when asked why you want to join, as well as your state?

http://dads-house.org/ \\\\\\\\

I think that they should legalize it, they would make so much money off selling it, it would be more of an advantage for the government or sellers, because there will be lots of taxes added to the price. Like cigarettes, they are super expensive but people still buy them, I don't think the government realizes that, and also that marijuana is out there and no matter whether its illegal or not, it will still be around. Also i don't think people realize that cigarettes and alcohol are actually worse for you than weed, weed may affect your way of thinking, but what about alcohol? people die of alcohol poisoning all the time and drunk driving, when was the last time someone died of weed? Seriously, not recently. So yes I think it should be legal, it is a natural plant, and yet its illegal but nasty man made, pesticide cigarettes aren't?

The government should really hire more scientists to look into the effects of marijuana on health over time. Once scientists can make a thorough conclusion about health effects of marijuana, the government can unambiguously say yes or no regarding cannabis' legality. Over all, pot is not as big a concern as perhaps balancing the budget or healthcare policy, so the decision on whether pot should be legal or not could get delayed. As of now, given what we know about pot, if the government had to make a choice on the issue, they would make it legal.

it isn't illegal to have it in your fridge, and it isn't illegal if you let the minors have alittle of the alcohol as long as you are monitoring them, and it has to be your own children. It's better for kids to be exposed to things at a responsible age, so that when they are older it doesn't seem like something that is a big deal and they are less likely to to do it more when they are in their teenage years. think about when you were young, would you be more likely to drink when you were with your friends (and remember the most common reason is that they think its cool) but if you were exposed to it earlier, it wouldn't seem that big of a deal to have any so you wouldn't drink to be "cool"