Qusetion about coercion.?

Question

I have read some law and there is a general understanding, at least from a legal aspect, that "suggestion, persuasion, arguments or entreaties" are not enough to constitute coercion that is able to revoke consent. On the other hand, coercion is supposed to be based on what the average human being would do in those circumstances, age, marital status, mental and psychical health considered, of course. My question is, if the afore mentioned things aren't sufficient to constitute legal coercion, what do you guys, as people, consider coercion enough to " deprive one of his own free will."?

Let it be noted that I believe any kind of pressure to be coercion and completely unacceptable. I was just wondering, if you were a judge or whatnot, what you would consider "enough" coercion to "deprive free will." Hope that makes sense.

Answer 1

Coercion is like telling someone, "if you don't give the baby up, you won't have a home anymore" or "if you don't give the baby to us, we will make sure you never get a job at XYZ's again or any other place in town".   It can be a hard thing to prove, because if a girl's mother says, "Honey, we can't keep the baby here, we're just making ends meet, and it will go hungry" is more of a suggestion to how hard money is, and that it wouldn't be fair to the baby.  Depending on a young women's situation, confidence level, etc, a judge could go either way on this argument.  Also, "bullies" can include parents, boyfriends, husbands, sisters, friends, etc, and some women are more suceptible to suggestions than others.  That's why we have court systems and judges to decide these things.

Answer 2

Coercion is when someone puts a pressure into place that would not be there in the "normal course" of things.  A person explaining that having a baby means and end to "nights out", scrounging for money, and a lot of stress is not coercion.  Coercion is when they include things that are not natural consequences.  "If you keep the baby we'll make sure you get kicked out of your apartment" or "If you keep the baby we'll make you pay a fine" or "If you keep the baby we'll beat up your little brother" etc..

Answer 3

this is so wordy i can't figure it out.

Answer 4

Suggestions/guidance has the intention of benefiting the other person while coercion has the intention of benefiting the person doing the coercing without regard to the individual who is being coerced.

I hope that made sense!

Answer 5

I totally agree with you, Camira - any pressure can be coercion. Jessica's answer is great; I agree with all of it.

I just want to add that I consider purposefully manipulating anyone in crisis, as many expectant mothers considering adoption are, for one's own benifit, be it for money, s*x, power, babies or anything else is deplorable and morally reprehensable.

A person's state of mind is key when deciding how much power another entity has over influencing his or her decision. IMO, pregnancy alone is enough to alter someone's thinking.

The fact is, people are generally easily manipulated to begin with. I know no one likes to think that; but just look at politics and advertising.

The woman considering adoption for her child is usually experiencing a surprise pregnancy without support. Some are frightened and confused which makes them vulnerable and prime targets for influence by others. Some women considering adoption during pregnancy are ignorant of what the experience is like or what their resources are. Refusing support, failure to educate and omission of information should be considered coercion, IMO. How can someone make a choice when they are not fully educated about what those choices entail?

Many of these women have little or no defense especially against "professionals" who seek to guide them to choose one thing or another and have been trained to do so. (I know this is not always the case but it is very common!) Most expectant mothers involved in the adoiption process have little or no representation. Some are even represented by the same attorney as the agency or adopting family. This is definately coersion in my mind if not a blatent and unethical conflict of interest!

Even unintended pressure can have great influence over a vulnerable person especially when presented as "good" or "bad" as adoption choices ususally are.

In answer to your question, I feel that coersion is relative and should be proven individually when called into question.

BTW:

I do not mean to imply in any way that there are never cases where coersion is not present or that mothers considering adoption are somehow weak willed -just that the circumstances surrounding many adoptions lend themselves to both intentional and unintentional pressure in an already stressful situation. This, to me, can easily fall into the category of coersion.

I hope this makes sense. I had to edit alot! :)

Answer 6

Hi Camira,

I, like you, believe that any kind of pressure constitutes coercion. I guess what the law considers coercive in adoption is another story though, as we see the pervasiveness of infant adoption in this country.

This is a link to an article on trafficking (most often) women for s*x worker.

http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejust...

The article appears in the reproductive justice section of this site. I certainly consider adoption to fall into this category as well. Here is a paragraph from the article:

“Among other things, the legislation widens the U.S. Department of Justice's definition of trafficking, which currently hinges on the presence of "force, fraud or coercion." The House bill designates trafficking involving force, fraud or coercion as "aggravated trafficking" and expands simple trafficking to include other forms of deceit, manipulation and control including threats, verbal abuse and withholding of support. It also makes sexual tourism to foreign countries a crime akin to importing people to the U.S. for sexual servitude.”

It sounds to me as if some are making the distinction between aggravated trafficking and other forms of trafficking and I don’t know what the difference is. The point is that this bill seems to be expanding the definition of coercion to include “other forms of deceit” such as “manipulation…and withholding of support" - very common tactics in adoption as I'm sure you know.

If this can be done for women who are victimized by the s*x trade industry, it seems that it COULD be done for women whose only crime is becoming pregnant and naively seeking advice from the pro-adoption sector of society.

When or if that day will come is anybody’s guess. Likely not right away with all of the money being made on us and our children.

Just my thoughts.

Best

Answer 7

I fully believe what happened to you was coercion.  It's sad that you NEED to PROVE anything, you want your baby back PERIOD.

There are so many people who take plees and live in prison for years because of planted or false evidence. They know they are innocent, but take the plee knowing that other people won't believe them. You are fighting a life sentence. You know the evidence was planted. I'll keep praying for you.