”Healthy relationships help a person build self-esteem. They should be encouraged because they are an important part of a person's development.”
OK, Abby, that’s the right answer to the question. And remember, escort services do not provide healthy relationships.

I have a dear friend I'll call "Kent" who has muscular dystrophy. Kent is 95 percent paralyzed, but mentally he is one of the most intelligent, mature, open-minded, wonderful people I have ever met. At age 40, he is confined to his parents' home, to his bed and to a ventilator. Kent lives every day knowing that his next breath could be his last.

Kent has never had a girlfriend nor any sexual experiences, although he has all the normal sexual feelings and desires that any able-bodied man would have. For the past four years, Kent has asked me to arrange a sexual experience for him. He called and asked again recently, so I agreed.

I contacted an escort service and before I could finish two sentences, the manager said, "Don't worry about it. We've got it covered -- and we'll do it for free." The encounter went very well. The woman had a medical background and was not shocked by his disability or life-support devices.

When Kent's religious parents found out (they were not at home at the time), I was banned from their house, from contacting him, and his phone book suddenly "disappeared." I regret that I may have lost a dear friend, but I am more saddened to realize that a 40-year-old man can be held captive in his room by his disabled body and by his parents' morals and values as though he were a 13-year-old adolescent.

So, the disabled are entitled to sin? And it’s just nasty old religious parents getting in the way. Should our eyes well up with tears at the touching thought of the escort service offering this as a ‘freebie?’

This ‘friend’ is lucky to have been banned from his friend’s home. If I were in the parental position, I think I would do something much less gracious.

Wasn’t there some sort of goofy movie with Kenneth Brannagh and Helena Bonham Carter that revolved around a similar plot? It was vaguely disturbing yet fascinating. Can’t remember how it ended.

Thanks to Cacciaguida for the link.