DETERMINING THE AGE OF MATURITY 2
Human life, unless interfered with, is taken to progress from the status of being unborn to
childhood, and finally into adulthood. Each stage is a topic of interest. However, the transition
from childhood to adulthood is a stage that has attracted a lively debate in the academic and
political realms. This is because determining the age of maturity is critical especially to
policymakers. Basically, it has always been argued that young people cannot make decisions on
their own hence the need to protect them from exploitation and abuse. In most jurisdictions, 18
years and over is set as the age at which one is considered an adult. However, as argued here, this
is misleading and bound to change because emerging scientific evidence implies that parts of brain
that aid in decision-making are not fully developed until one is 25 years.
Throughout history, there is evidence that the age of maturity has not always been fixed.
Unfortunately, unlike the current standard that has been set based on biological and psychological
insights, politics played a key role in determining the age of majority. For instance, in Medieval
England, “feudal concerns” led to the raising of this age from 15 to 21 (Johnson, Blum, & Giedd,
2009, p. 2). In this case, 15 was considered a lower age for military training, warfare handling, and
cavalry fighting. Now, we are in the twenty-first century yet the determination of maturity age is
still a major concern.
Even in the most developed nations, the age of maturity and responsibility is not clearly
defined. For example, in the United States, one is entitled to vote as early as 16 years. Amazingly,
the age for drinking liquor has been raised to 21 (Johnson, Blum, & Giedd, 2009). Like in most
countries, widely known that the qualification for elective political positions requires different age
limits. Elsewhere, the World Health Organization holds that an “adult is a person older than 19
years of age” unless delimited by national laws (Caneo & Neirotti, 2017, p. 60). These
