Lima, Peru, Nov 22, 2011 / 16:17 pm
Medical experts in Peru warned that lowering the age of consent for sex to the age 14 would lead to abuse and sexual exploitation of minors.
The government has the duty to “protect the physical, psychiatric, moral and social integrity of children and adolescents,” Maita Garcia, president of the National Association of Catholic Doctors in Peru, told CNA on Nov. 21.
Children at the age of 14 are developing and “generally are not sufficiently capable of calculating the consequences of their actions,” she underscored.
“For this reason the principal of parental authority exists, by which the parents answer for them until they are legally adults.”