You know, you put bluntly exactly what happens. People become desensitized to what is and then the aberration is racheted up a knotch to allow the acceptance of a further crime and pedophilia is a crime against children. This disorder has an aggressor and a victim so it is not a mutually agreed to activity. Perhaps the psychiatric association counts among it's members a number of persons who practice or would like to practice pedophilia. Any normal person who has and loves helpless little children could never accept this crime against them. I am a trained RN..I was molested as a child by a stranger in our home..He was certainly not mentally ill..He was a respected member of the community and a talented, skilled professional person. I told my Mother and she saw to it that he was booted out never to return..He dropped dead at the age of 52 but God only knows how many children he molested who did not having loving mothers to turn to. During my clinical psychiatric nurses training, I saw hospitalized children who had suffered molestation and it was HEART BREAKING. This Association is not anything if not EVIL. I get more and more upset as I think about this. Our freedoms absolutely must draw a line somewhere. We are NOTHING in this nation if we do not protect our children!!
I think we're over-reacting. Nothing in the article even suggests that the APA is actually going to remove pedophilia from DSM-IV, and I bet that a poll of all APA members would show that the overwhelming majority (like 99%) are against the change. There is nothing wrong with debate, which often stimulates and focuses the mind and redefines the issues, and that's exactly what the APA was doing at this point in time.
That being said, removing pedophilia from DMS-IV might prove insignificant for several reasons. First, lots of behaviors are not specifically defined in the the DMS-IV, but that doesn't make the behavior any less deviant. Examples include homocide, rape, burglary, arson, assault, fraud, tax evasion, etc. Second, if pedophilia is not a mental illness under DSM-IV, then it is no longer subject to the insanity defense or similar defenses that try to excuse behavior on account of mental illness, and the perps will no longer get sentenced to mental health therapy because if pedophilia is not a mental disease, there is no sense wasting tax dollars on a mental cure. Just lock the sicko's up.
sounds scary at first, but reading the entire article, doesn't sound like anything will change. A bit alarmist.