ABSTRACT
This essay starts with the consideration of professor-student relationships and the question of whether or not they should be prohibited. During the course of its development, the author realized that the path to an answer crossed several other paths, each leading into its own forest: the relation between morality and legality; the distinction between the personal and the institutional; the distinction between a "power imbalance" and "power over"; the distinctions between social and sexual relationships; the relation between power and consent; the distinction between the implicit and the explicit; the distinction between potential and actual, between having power and using power; and the relation between relationships and professionalism. As adults, both professor and student should be allowed the freedom of association. Further, both professor and student, as adults, should be allowed the freedom of personal autonomy. If one cannot handle the risk, then one can simply choose not to consent.
