A recent TEDx Talk at the University of Würzburg has come under fire for its unusual stance on pedophilia.

https://vimeo.com/275952699

On May 5, medical student Mirjam Heine spoke at an independently organized TEDx Talk event at the University of Würzburg in Germany. In a description of the event, the TED Talk website explained that Heine’s would focus on her belief that pedophilia is a natural, unchangeable sexual orientation.

Ms. Heine “believes that no one is responsible for their sexual orientation, for their feelings, but that everyone is responsible for acting upon this sexual orientation,” the website reads. “She also inquires how all of us can gain if we distinguish clearly between our feelings and our actions. Since pedophiles can’t change their sexual desires, they must learn to control them to not act upon them.”

“Let me be clear here, abusing children is wrong without any doubt. But a pedophile who does not abuse children has not done anything wrong,” Heine said in her lecture.

Heine’s lecture suffers from her own confusion on the topic. “Scientific studies indicate that one of the strongest indicators of child sex abuse committed pedophiles is social isolation. People who can’t tell anyone that they are pedophiles can’t get any help,” she states. “For example, they can’t tell their friends that they can’t go the beach because children will be there as well.”

The TED Talk organization immediately took down the video in response to a massive online backlash against the talk.

If we embrace the notion that pedophilia is a fixed and unchangeable sexual orientation, how does that explain why a pedophile couldn’t be around children on the beach? Straight and gay people are often around people they find attractive. Heine seems to suggest that pedophilia, to her, is not just a sexual orientation. It’s a mindset that involves the inability to resist one’s own sexual urges, even at the expense of a child’s basic right to not be violated.

In a statement, the organization suggested that they weren’t aware of Heine’s lecture prior to the independently organized event. The TED Talk organization claims they are working to take down any “illegal” copies of the talk that have been posted online.