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Sex education urged for the mentally-retarded

The Young Reporter (1979, December 15), 12(05), pp. 4.
Author: Cynthia Chan.
Permanent URL - https://sys01.lib.hkbu.edu.hk/bujspa/purl.php?&did=bujspa0013122

By CYNTHIA CHAN

SEX education for the mentally retarded (the MRs, as the social workers call them) is important to their safety and well-being, especially among the females, Mr Paul Lee said. He is in charge of the education section of the Family Planning Association.

There are some 90,000 mentally retarded people in Hong Kong. Experts in the field say it would be an enormous job providing sex education for them all.

Recently, the FPA and eight Government and voluntary bodies began organising a series of courses to train social workers and people caring for MRs on how to teach sex to them.

The project will extend to four years, Mr Paul Lee said. “There will be three to four courses a year, each with an enrolment of 30 in each course,” he added. The first began in early November.

The MRs are very vulnerable to accidents and follies resulting from sexual urges, Mr Lee said.

“The big problem,” he went on,“is that they seldom develop inhibitions of the kind that will safeguard them from trouble. Their reaction is free- reined. They have no idea of the consequences of their actions, or reactions, as a result of sexual urges.”

The way Mr Lee explains - if, for instance, an MR is attracted to someone, he shows it openly and acts according to how he feels.

“He would try every means to attract that person,” Mr Lee said. “Therefore, the danger is very real for the MR girls, some of whom are very attractive indeed.”

In such a situation, the female MR becomes a hapless and helpless victim to the advance of an MR male, unless she dislikes him. But if she is a friend, she will not resist at all, any of his advances - even if it is sexual intercourse Mr Lee said.

EDUCATION

“Therefore I think it is important to provide sex education for them all. By this they will at least know how to keep personal hygiene, and also about activities such as pairing off, dating and marriage, and all the possible consequences that may arise from these activities.”

The fear, of course, is in the indiscriminate occurrence of pregnancy among the MRs, which is not a remote possibility by any means.

And to prevent such pregnancies (if only for fear of the offsprings inheriting retarded traits, whether one or both of the parties is affected), sterilisation of MRs has been advanced as a solution. But not all agree that this is the answer.

“Also,” said Mr Lee, “this is a sensitive subject, and has aroused much controversy.

On the one hand, sterilisation is one way to thoroughly eliminate the problem arising from sex involving MRs. On the other, it meets up with strong objections from the normal spouses of MRs.

“Not every Chinese would willingly give up the chance of having children in as final a way as sterilisation imposes,”

The FPA has not yet provided sterilisation in its activities, although the association has the means, and will provide them on medical recommendation, or by relatives* consent, of if the court orders.

Miss Teresa Woo of the Po Leung Kuk Kwai Shing Children’s Training Section said that the risk of offsprings inheriting from their MR parent or parents is not inconsiderable.

But the bigger fear even, as far as social workers are concerned, lies in the unlikely ability of MRs to properly care for and bring up their children afterwards, she said.

STERILISATION

“If a child continues under the care of MR parents, it may not get enough stimulation in their behaviour-learning. Rather, it would tend to adopt the awkward behaviour and temperament of its parent, even though the child may biologically, be perfectly normal.”

Miss Woo also has some reservations about sterilisation as the final solution.

She said sterilisation applies only to the mildly or moderately retarded anyway. The severely retarded do not develop sexually.

“It’s hard to say what is the best answer to eliminate sex problems and risks among the MRs,” she added.

One method of controlling the problem is by preventing conception in the female. This is done by injection which is effective against conception for up to three months at a time.

Voluntary organisations now provide assistance and facilities to enable couples involving MRs to lead reasonable married lives, and to avoid pregnancies if they wished.

Miss Teresa Woo of Po Leung Kuk, said a marriage counsellor is available always to these couples.

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