Re: What age do you think children can consent?

"The first friend I mentioned here believes it might be that people are repulsed by pedophilia--at least in part--because of it's resemblance to incest (consider the Westermarck Effect, which is inbuilt.)"

I will trust your opinion that your friends are pretty smart, but even smart people have cultural prejudices that are very difficult to excise. There are, of course, some inborn traits and fears (fears of snakes and spiders might qualify, though they are not universal), but strong cultural conditioning from an early age can make it difficult to determine which traits are inborn and which are acquired - even for very intelligent people.