In the year 2012, a group of medical ethicist and researchers working in Australia said that nursing homes should give the patients a chance to have sex normally as it would help in their recovery. Like food and thirst, sex is also a basic need that has to be satiated for a healthy life. The Journal of Medical Ethics has published the conclusions of a research conducted by the Australian Centre for Evidence Based Aged Care. According to this report, every western country offers sexual freedom to its residents and the patients admitted in nursing homes should not face discrimination in this matter. They should be given the right to have sexual intercourse in the nursing homes during their long stay.
No one has the right to stop an individual from having consensual sex with another person. Now sex is considered one of the basic rights of human beings and it should not be taken away from the elderly or the physically unfit individuals under any circumstances. According to a news report published in the New York Daily News, the elderly people who live in residential care facilities are often prevented from having a normal sex life. There are many taboos regarding sexual gratification among the aged people that should be confronted and countered.
The staff of the nursing homes and residential aged care facilities usually does not have training in facilitating a normal sex life for the elderly people. The nursing home authorities are afraid about the repercussions regarding the active sexual life of the nursing home residents and they are indirectly promoting a social taboo that should have been diminished long back. Due to strict safety regulations, the elderly do not get the privacy that every adult human being deserves.
The hospital and nursing home authorities are more worried about the social and legal liabilities than the overall well being of their wards. It is natural for the sexually deprived, aged individuals to feel insecure and lonely. Often they are treated like unruly kids or mentally unhinged persons. To help the aged people have a normal sex life the nursing home authorities will have to train their staff to respect the privacy and sexual needs of elderly individuals.
Summary:
Every individual has the right to have a normal sexual life. Even the elderly people and patients should get privacy for intimate physical relationship with their partners.
