Volunteers needed for sex with the disabled

The news is out of Switzerland:

A Swiss welfare group is recruiting volunteers to have sex with disabled people.

The Basel-based Welfare Group for Disability and Sexuality already arranges erotic massages for people with disabilities.

But it is now providing full sexual intercourse and is also signing up gay volunteers to have sex with homosexual disabled people.

The group's leader Aiha Zemp said it was a subject that "needed to be tackled."

She said: "It's a big taboo that needs to be broken. Having sex is a basic human need like eating and drinking and we have to fight for this right for the disabled."

At present three men and one woman offer an erotic 'touching service,' and nine new volunteers have come forward to offer sex at £65 per hour.

Among the new recruits are four men, two of them homosexuals.

Zemp rejected criticism that the group were simply training up prostitutes.

"The big difference between the assistants and prostitutes is that the assistants show tenderness and are conscious of the needs of the disabled, rather than rushing and just taking the money," she said.

£65 is, I believe, about $130 an hour?

The LJ group No Pity has discussed this and hit on some obvious points: First, $130 bucks is a lot of money. Also, this program implies that disabled people cannot find sexual partners without paying for sex. It also suggests that the problem of physical isolation and lack of personal relationships disabled people might have is A) substantively different from nondisabled people's and that B) throwing cash at it is a good solution.

The Swiss welfare group's leader, Zemp, also asserts that sex is a basic human need "like eating and drinking." While there is scientific evidence that people -- children, in particular -- fail to thrive without human touch, I have yet to hear of anyone starving to death for lack of sex. And there are many options in the realm of human touch, in any case, that do not involve sex.

There is the point that many disabled people cannot masturbate themselves and, thus, having no partner effectively means not ever having what would otherwise be self-induced pleasure. I recall a New Mobility article some years ago about this and, specifically, how much a personal assistant should be expected to assist in the very personal. That makes for some challenging debates about privacy, choice, etc.

And, of course, the underlying and explosive topic of sex workers hides behind this all. Would volunteers -- well-paid volunteers -- be "prostitutes"? Do disabled people need "special" prostitutes? "Special gay prostitutes"? Is there anything wrong with that?

My opinion: This is icky. In, oh, so many ways. Why not spend that money on access and transport to local night clubs (or church events) that lessen social isolation? Why not use the cash for a dating service that would at least match horny disabled folk with horny devotee-types who aren't in it for the money?

I'm also curious as to just how gimpy or sex-starved one has to be to qualify for this service. It's sponsored by a "welfare group" so I expect the disabled folks aren't trading their scarce food stamps to pay for the service themselves. Can one just limp in the welfare group's doors and claim they're dying to get laid? Or, as in the U.S., are there doctor's forms and judgments to be made about just how physically inept one is to qualify for aid? Is it only physical impairment or can someone with ADD or dyslexia or autism or schizophrenia get in on the action too?

So many questions. The answer to every one: Ick.