Friday 3 April 2020

Donner And Naysmith

"Un-Man," VII.

Donner and Naysmith are clones of the same man, therefore indistinguishable from each other. That does not necessarily follow but is the assumption of the story. Naysmith is with Donner's widow, Jeanne, who does not yet know that she is bereaved. For the time being, Naysmith is getting Jeanne's cooperation by passing himself off as Donner. If he and Jeanne have sex while he is still misleading her about his identity, then he will be guilty of rape because she will have consented to sex with her husband and he is not her husband.

There was a different although similar case in Britain. (I can't remember whether I mentioned this here before.) Undercover policemen infiltrated a protest movement for years, long enough to have sexual relationships and even children with women members of the movement. After this came to light, the women felt that they had consented to sex on the basis of a deception - although it was not a deception about identity that would classify the sex as rape.

That is my last thought for tonight although I expect that there will be time for blogging tomorrow. Most days, we have one fairly long walk for exercise but otherwise stay at home in accordance with government instructions.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Even if, strictly speaking and genetically, Donner and Naysmith were the "same," how long could they be truly said to be indistinguishable from each other? As time passed and they did and said things the other had not done, I think they would inevitably become more different from each other.

Ad astra! Sean