Re: Matt Deatherage (was Very Sad, but...)

[jimwong@owlnet.rice.edu (Jim Wong)]

In article <2obq40$c7j@nedata.reston.ingr.com> wsgentry@nedata.reston.ingr.com (W. Scott Gentry) writes:
>This is not a question of informed consent.  It is a question of right
>and wrong with respect to the law.  Matt allegedly broke the law.  
>No amount of pleading from the child is going to get Matt off the hook.
...
>Regardless of how that child might feel today, these things have a profound
>affect on not only the child but the whole family.  These feelings do not
>simply go away with a no contest plea, remorse, or tears.
>
>for him at all in this matter.  He is an adult.  If found guilty, he
>will have taken advantage of a child.  If it were my child, I'd be out
>for his head.  He made his bed, let him lay in it.

To say that he "took advantage of a child" is a bit strong.  Yes, what he
did was wrong with respect to the law; that fact does not necessarily
imply that what he did was Wrong, in the grand, cosmic sense of the word.
Some people are perfectly capable of making informed decisions about their
lives at age 14.  Some people never learn to do so.
-- 
Jim Wong (jimwong@owlnet.rice.edu)