Incest, Should it be legalised? Options

[Daria]

In Germany, there is currently a legal battle being undergone by a brother and sister who have had four children together- three of which have been put into foster care. The brother is 30 and the sister is 22 (I have just re-read the article and noticed that they "fell in love" when they first met in 2000. She would have only been 15.. hmm...) and only "met" because he was adopted by another family when he was a child.

Many people see it as a crime, but we've done nothing wrong...
We are like normal lovers. We want to have a family. Our whole family broke apart when we were younger, and after that happened, Susan and I were brought closer together

Incest is a criminal offence in Germany due to a law est. 1871. Patrick has already served a two-year sentence for committing incest and has "another jail term looming if paragraph 173 of the legal code is not overturned".

So should it be legalised? Should brothers and sisters be allowed to have children with one another? As the article points out, children of incestuous couples are far more likely to be disabled and in this family's case, their eldest child has epilepsy and learning difficulties ("but he was born two months premature"), and their other daughter has special needs.

People have said that our children are disabled, but that is wrong. They are not disabled

But is that really a good enough reason to prevent brothers and sisters having kids? People who have CF, Muscular Distrophy and other hereditary diseases still have children and there is no law preventing them from doing so. I know it sort of reduces the possibility of genetic variation, but seeing as humans have evolved to the point where they have all sorts of technical advances to help them survive to childbearing age, regardless of any diseases or disabilities they may have, should it even be an issue?

Thoughts, people.

[Tarantio]

So inbreeding gets you put in charge of a country and meeting other important and (much more) interesting people? Or inbreeding gives you large ears? Your second point is a little more vaild, but you should know I was born with three thumbs (and my parents were certainly not related) and, as I found out from recent X-rays when I sprained my ankle, mutant ankle-bones. Of course the risk of disabilities is higher, but saying that disabled children (I have no idea what the "PC" way of saying it is, so forgive if I offend) is a direct and unavoidable consequence of incestuous relations is a bit harsh. Unwanted pregnancies are a result of careless sex, but the government doesn't ban unprotected sex with two people outside of wedlock (or who aren't commited to raising a child together anyway). What it does do is provide advice and services to people it concerns, though. I would imagine the case would be similar were incest to be made legal. Not quite as blunt as Wookie puts it, perhaps, but a similar message can easily be put across of "fair enough, you love each other, but these are the risks you're taking while doing it:".

I think it would be easy to set up a board about such a thing. There's loads already for drug users (and that's still illegal in most cases), so why not relax the laws on it and just highlight the risks? I mean, smoking is legal and it causes cancer. So why, if its damaging the gene pool, has it not been made illegal yet? Its got an "ick" factor as well, and causes a lot more heartache than a brother and sister falling in love, but its too damn profitable still for any government to think of throwing out entirely. Aren't public smoking bans wonderful things, though? (sorry, off topic). Its telling people too much of what they can and can't do, IMO, when another solution that doesn't force desicions on people is readily available.

Its not my cup of tea, thanks, but then I'm also exclusively heterosexual. If it were me, I'd like to at least have the choice, and be able to find out the risks easily and reliably.

[Wookiee]

So inbreeding gets you put in charge of a country and meeting other important and (much more) interesting people? Or inbreeding gives you large ears?

It was more a passing reference to something Eddie Izzard said about the Windsors needing to learn the fundamental lesson of cousins marrying and scraping the bottom of the gene pool. And the second part was just because everyone needs to know and love Juliana Wetmore. It's a thing. It should be clear from my post that I have little that's constructive to add, I'm just playing for cheap laffs.

An extra thumb, though? That strikes me as a certain flavour of awesome. Thumbs are what makes mankind evolutionarily spectacular, so an extra one surely makes you some kind of superhero. Shall I call you Logan, Weapon X?