No sex, if you’re not smart enough?

Is libido or sexual drive the only factor that influences sexual behaviour? Active! gets the last word

No sex, if you're not smart enough?

Is libido or sexual drive the only factor that influences sexual behaviour? Active! gets the last word

A High Court judge in England shocked the world by barring a man with low IQ, from having sex. The court found the man, known only as Alan, unfit for decision-making after a few social workers complained of his behaviour.

The decision has garnered mixed reactions. Dr Sandeep Mane, consultant in reproductive medicine and surgery says, "Why do we think only adults should be allowed to have sex? That's because they have the ability to take 'proper' decisions. The man in question might be 41 years old, but his decision-making powers may still be that of a teenager.

If not barred from having sex, he can be abused and expose himself to health risks."
Whether brains have anything to do with someone's ability to have sex is debatable, because IQ measures only logical reasoning, word knowledge and numeric skills.u00a0 On the other hand, Emotional Quotient or EQ is arguable a more holistic way to measure one's emotional make-up, as it has more to do with emotional wellbeing, which is necessary for an active sex life.

"Sex has two aspects -- performance and responsibility. No one needs a certain level of wisdom to perform the 'act', not even animals. It's more about EQ than IQ. IQ and sex are not directly proportional," says Dr Sanjoy Mukerji, psychologist and counsellor.

According to a recent study, students with higher IQs were less likely to be sexually active. While a relatively larger sample size and meticulous methodologies were used for the study, the results are doubtful, because the indicator of a student's sex life is more than libido, but also parental punishment, social acceptance, priorities and ethics.

"Alan was barred from sex not because he had a low IQ, but because he couldn't understand what he was doing. He was already living under council's supervision. The link between IQ and the activeness is causation, not correlation," adds Dr Mukerji.

What is IQ and how is it determined?
Since intelligence is subjective, the concept of Intelligence Quotient (IQ) was formulated to objectively determine the intelligence of an individual. IQ determined using a score in a set of specifically designed tests.u00a0