Promises and Consent

Promises create a duty to act as promised in the future. Equally, morally valid consent to some acts, such as sex, requires that one consent when the act occurs. A promise to perform an act that requires contemporaneous consent—for example, a sexual promise—intuitively seems morally problematic. Hallie Liberto argues that promises have a moral duty to reject sexual promises. I argue, however, that it is morally permissible to accept a promise from another to perform an act that requires contemporaneous consent because the promise is conditional on consent. Accordingly, a sexual promise, for example, does not authorize nonconsensual sex. Furthermore, the promissory duty created by such promises is not rendered meaningless by its being conditional on consent.