The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A Paradigm Shift in the Sexual Empowerment of Adults with Down Syndrome or More Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing?

Abstract

This paper deconstructs the ambitious claims made on behalf of the ability of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to empower adults with Down syndrome living in the parental home to take control over their sexuality. As a philosophical investigation into the subject matter at hand the method chosen to highlight the tension between moral and legal rights is that of the thought experiment. This pre-empts Ireland’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to construct a scenario where adults with Down syndrome in the parental home are granted legal capacity, and by extension the legal right to control their own sexuality. But how does this status fare when it comes into conflict against the perceived ‘moral right’ of the parent to prohibit their adult children from actualizing such legal rights? Arguably legal rights are effectively powerless in ensuring the legal right of adults with Down syndrome to control their own sexuality can be realised in the face of parental prohibitions. However, while the treaty is limited in its capacity to overcome the real world obstacles identified, this is not to suggest that it is impotent to effect changes when it comes to the issue of sexual empowerment for adults with Down syndrome. In addition to its discursive power, the treaty also provides the much needed impetus which will, once it becomes a part of Irish domestic legislation, see current Irish law which discriminates against the right of adults with intellectual disabilities to express their sexuality overhauled.