French outrage: To think we could be born that way
French right-wing presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy is taking heat after he speculated that some people may be born pedophiles. Everybody is shocked that someone could dare think something like that. "When Sarkozy goes as far as saying that a baby can be born condemned to perversity ... what kind of society do we live in?" said an opposing
candidate for the upcoming elections. The mighty Archbishop of Paris, said "what seems the most serious to me, is the idea that we cannot change the course of our destiny".

This is silly.

If we were born with an attraction to children, we are not "condemned to perversity," and we are still free to change the course of our destinies. If people could get it out of their heads that sexual orientation is a mandatory step-by-step recipe for how to live a life, the world would be a better place. We are not robots!

I am not up to speed with current science on pedophilia; I only know that there generally is not much science in that field at all. However, I know I had clear pedophile tendencies before my age hit the double digits, and I have heard countless similar accounts from others. So, many of us (and I say "many" because I lack the audacity to say "most," though perhaps I could) had the orientation from we were very young. If we were not born with it, then what is the effective difference?

I know that Sarkozy is not proposing this because he is an open-minded guy who sympathises with minor-attracted people; in fact, he probably wants to push for some kind of genetic profiling to abort fetuses who may be pedophiles. But I think he is right that sexual orientation, including pedophilia, is formed some time between conception and birth. I only wonder what happens the day the technology exists to identify pedophile fetuses.