I blogged about this doctor when he was arrested. I pointed out that some doctors are asked by law enforcement to look at child porn images to estimate ages of the people in the images.
The difference between the prison-bound pediatrician looking at child porn and another doctor looking at child porn to estimate ages? The assumption is that one is turned on by the images and the other is not...not that we can tell for certain who is aroused and who is not...or who goes home after seeing the images to fantasize about what was seen.
We simply cannot know what is in the mind of the viewer, no matter how entertaining it is to imagine that we can.
At the Washington Post link, commenter DCDiva63 said,
I can't believe there are parents out there supporting this sick pervert. There is no excuse for possessing child pornography, period. I don't care how much good work he did for the community. He was in a position of trust, and this is the worst kind of exploitation and abuse of children. He was getting his jollies from it and that makes him beneath contempt.Looking at images is the worst kind of exploitation and abuse of children? Really? I wouldn't be so sure. Thinking that looking at pictures is worse than anything else that could happen to children, is not rational.
I am glad that the doctor will serve only 18 months and I'm sorry he has to go to prison at all. It is good that his community is standing by him, recognizing that he broke the law but remembering that he was someone who did good.
Breaking the law does not--cannot!--negate the best part of a life.
3 comments:
I wonder if this man is an example of what so many people think cannot exist: a pedophile who never directly abuses children despite plenty of opportunity -- the article says there is no reason to think he abused any patients, and this is a pediatrician we're talking about. His moral compass may have failed him at one level -- being excited by pictures of children being abused and seeking them out -- but it may have been intact at the level of direct and immediate harm.
Ethan,
Just shows the flaw in people assuming that those who view CP will abuse a child
actually the recent studies indicate 68% of those convicted for CP have at least one "live" victim. They have found correlations of the "Amount" of porn found on a defendant is in direct relation to HOW many Live victims the perp may have had.
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