My question is why we give adults who lack the ability to give informed consent more rights and respect than teenagers, who we assume can't make rational and informed decisions simply because of their age? And don't we care at all about the potential risks of sexual behavior in people who actively demonstrate that they aren't able to make rational decisions about their behavior, who engage in sexual acts in public and when one of the partners "isn't clean" (the son's comment, which suggested to me that perhaps his father had soiled himself)? I know that I would want someone to step in and not just assume that I understood what was going on if I was 80+ and suffering from dementia and in a sexual relationship. We assume teenagers won't think through all the risks of sex but seem confident that two elderly people who don't even recognize family members will.

I gather you're contrasting the sexual activity of elders suffering dementia with teenagers here to support intervention in the case of the elders. Strictly speaking, I'm not sure the contrast works, obviously because puppies beget puppies, whereas older dogs don't. If something legally consequential arises, then I believe that tools are already in place to intervene. Soiled public activity seems like enough to me. My grandmother suffered from Alzheimers was finally committed when she showed up to a neighbor's BBQ without her pants...

Maybe Bob and Dorothy suffered from dementia because they were bored until they found one another. Looks to me that they didn't forget the art, and strength, that passion and caring, can bring to one another.

Engaging in relationships have always been a "cure-all," for survival. They deserve the respect and privacy, which they earned.

Someone should have given them more admiration. It is a dishonor for society to interfere, and burden the health, and minds, of these two elderly sages.

Why not turn your back and smile as you walk away from a seemingly delightful, entrage of human equity.

A "Do Not Disturb," sign was in order here, and their illness evidently, did not disrupt their ability, to find ways to deal with living happily with it.

Too bad they didn't have the strength to scold those who tried to break them up. As I see it, they were banished from taking an obviously, timeless, exit from life.

They could have danced naked in front of me, and I would have smiled, told them "thank-you," and hoped that I died from the same disease they would some day....the disease they forgot they had.

Sharon Collins

Dallas, TX

I would add to duhwane's comments that the consequences of teenager's sex is likely to be an infant and the lifetime commitment that comes with it.

The consequences of elder sex, if STDs are accounted for, are joy, healthful activity, and companionship.