‘Elderly denied right to sex’

PARIS (AFP) – Care facilities often deny elderly people the basic right, and one of their few remaining pleasures, to continue having sex, according to a paper published yesterday.

Many older people, including those with early stage dementia, enjoy sex while they live at home, but this changes once they move into residential care, said the Australian authors of a paper in the Journal of Medical Ethics. They blame a lack of privacy, age discrimination, and fears about the legal implications should a patient be found mentally incompetent to give consent.