Yeah, that may be, but that law can't work that way for obvious reasons. The law has to pick some magic number, whether it's 16 or 18 or 21 or whatever, when people are entitled to be considered an adult under the law. I know it's arbitrary, but what's the alternative? Have every person reach legal adulthood at a different age, based on when they reach a certain point in their sexual or physical development? Who evaluates that? And what exactly would be the magic point in the gradual process of sexual/physical development that defines sexual/physical adulthood and therefore legal adulthood? You'd have to pick one, and ultimately it would be just as arbitrary as picking a magic age... except it would be a lot more of a hassle to determine when each person had passed that point.
Arguably, the right to make adult decisions should be based on mental development, not physical sexual development. Why does it make sense that the state of your reproductive organs should be what determines whether you are an adult or not? Isn't the state of your mind much more important to your decision-making? It's pretty well established that a person has some degree of mental adolescence well into their 20s, even if they are physically adults by their early- to mid-teens. Your conviction that a person is an adult once they've completed puberty is just as arbitrary as the laws saying that a person is an adult once they're 18 years old.Originally Posted by UnreasonablyReasonable
Ultimately, "adulthood" as a legal and social term is, itself, arbitrary. It's socially constructed; it's whatever we agree it to be. Acting like sexual maturity is the "true" or "proper" definition of adulthood in this sense is just absurd.
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