Taboo Topic: Should Incest Be Legal

[GoodEnoughForMe]

It shoud be legal for adults. The government should keep their stupid little problems out of people's sex life.

 

[GenMarshall]

NO!!!! Incest should be illegal! I am against it both on religious grounds and logical grounds. On logical grounds I strongly feel that there should be genetic diversity insted of genetic stagnation.

 

[ShannonCT]

NO!!!! Incest should be illegal! I am against it both on religious grounds and logical grounds. On logical grounds I strongly feel that there should be genetic diversity insted of genetic stagnation.

Maybe the government should decide who should breed and who shouldn't to produce optimal genetic diversity.

I say that among adult social equals (brother-sister, cousins), there's no victim and it's none of the government's business.

 

[bathsheba666]

NO!!!! Incest should be illegal! I am against it both on religious grounds and logical grounds. On logical grounds I strongly feel that there should be genetic diversity insted of genetic stagnation.

Tell that to Adam and Eve.

 

[QuoVadisNation]

Whether it's legal or not, the social sanctions placed upon it is so great that it makes eating still babies during the 4th of July barbecue look like a faux pas.

Some laws are essentially moral, and this is one of the few objected ones.

 

[emzie]

I already said on another thread I dated a cousin. Never had sex. Never objected to having sex either.

If I had a sister, I wouldn't object to having a relationship with her. And further, I wouldn't object to doing anything with her except having a child -- for genetic reasons (what's the data on birth defects between siblings compared to cousins, which we already disproved!) and I wouldn't want to label anyone with that stigma.

There, I said it. We would be two consenting adults. Assuming no children, how does this hurt you any more than me having sex with someone who is not my sister?

What did Adam and Eve's children do o_O

 

[TrailblazingScot]

No and simply due to the problems with "issue" - the children have a FAR higher % of genetic disorders.

They can rut, but no children and so that means they can only have...

 

[Kyriakos]

On logical grounds I strongly feel that there should be genetic diversity insted of genetic stagnation.

This is not logical. You are saying that your own view that there should be diversity means that other people have to accept that as their goal as well, which does not follow logically. Moreover if this was your problem then you should accept someone having sexual relationships both with non-relatives and close relatives, since he would be helping diversity, which im sure you realise will only be a factor if he/she actually has offspring, which some people will not have anyway nomatter if they have been practising incest or not. So even if such an argument had been logical (which it is not) still it would have been self-cancelled.

 

[Atlas14]

I've already covered that in this post: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=4722483&postcount=34

So which is it - about children, or consent?

And I already told you, it is too hard to distinguish between consent and non-consent as far as sexual incest relationships. If both say "we consented" then no penalties shall ensue, but it is easier to simply lay it out as illegal in the form of the law first, and if both later admit to consent, then that is ok. But otherwise it shall be assumed as parental rape/incestial rape. And the issue of limited genetic variability is still a relevant issue. Both are factors in my reasoning for why incest should be illegal. Cousins im not sure about, I've been corrected here on CFC that the severe genetic problems do not arise until multiple generations of the incest occur, and thus one incest relationship would be ok. However, we are talking about parent-offspring and offspring-offspring sexual relationships here.

 

[Kyriakos]

Good to note that there should be seperation between an incestual relationship which produces offspring, and one whidh does not. Im sure that the greatest percentage of incestual relationships, for many reasons, will not produce offspring, so the argument about the small rise in the risk of teratogennesis from incest should not be taken at all into account.

 

[C~G]

When it comes to incest the problem ain't just those genetic problems but the psychological scheme how we recognise family members and sexual partners from each other.

Society that starts to favor incest inside families has almost literally screwed itself up.

We would be starting of talking people raising their children and possible teaching them to be their future sexual partners. We want to reduce such chance to minimum, don't we?

I believe this is one of the vital characteristics of being human, that we have special relationship with our parents and our siblings without the existence of sex between us and them.
It's also about such thing as trust.

Somehow the current seems to put sex over everything for the people, that's why so many people favor having it legal without acknowledging the consequences (even the poll here seems to show that).

This ain't some minor thing but phenomena that would majorly affect society.

I can already imagine the front page of Cosmopolitan:
Feel naughty? We offer 10 useful tips to get hot and steamy with your brother.

In all honesty I can say that from there it's small step giving the consent to 14 year olds to have sex with partners they can ultimately always trust: their parents.

 

[mdwh]

And I already told you, it is too hard to distinguish between consent and non-consent as far as sexual incest relationships. If both say "we consented" then no penalties shall ensue

So it you say it should be legal if it's between consenting adults, then. We agree. I presumed this thread was about insect between consenting adults - obviously if sex without consent or with children is illegal, it doesn't matter whether it's incest or not.

but it is easier to simply lay it out as illegal in the form of the law first, and if both later admit to consent, then that is ok.

Just like sex is anyway - illegal if people don't consent.

 

[mdwh]

Society that starts to favor incest inside families has almost literally screwed itself up.

I don't think anyone is suggesting it be favoured. I'm sure it will still be a taboo, and clearly it will only be a small minority of people who ever do it.

The question is - should people be thrown in prison (or otherwise punished, treated as a criminal) for doing so?

In all honesty I can say that from there it's small step giving the consent to 14 year olds to have sex with partners they can ultimately always trust: their parents.

This thread is not about sex with children!

 

[Atlas14]

So it you say it should be legal if it's between consenting adults, then. We agree. I presumed this thread was about insect between consenting adults - obviously if sex without consent or with children is illegal, it doesn't matter whether it's incest or not.

Just like sex is anyway - illegal if people don't consent.

Well no, producing offspring in an incest relationship should under all circumstances be illegal. But I can see where otherwise, if it is sex where no offspring are produced and it is consensual, then it should be legal, though largely discouraged.

 

[C~G]

I don't think anyone is suggesting it be favoured. I'm sure it will still be a taboo, and clearly it will only be a small minority of people who ever do it.

I'm sorry but that is BS.
The social taboo is only strong enough if the society is against it in all cases. Otherwise it could lead to situation that it becomes less of taboo and will start to interest people.
Or are you saying that legalizing example marihuana ain't favouring it?

The question is - should people be thrown in prison (or otherwise punished, treated as a criminal) for doing so?

They need some serious counseling (mandatory), not jail time.

This thread is not about sex with children!

I said it's small step from that when society will recognise that approval can be given to certain circumstances to have sex with own children that are underage.
The point here is that you can create get control over the child during when you raise him/her and then when he/she is adult, have sex with her/him.

If you don't see it becoming a problem like that, I can't help it.
I rather promote public orgies than incest.
Sex is a drug and need to be controlled in some way. It just seems some people would like sex to happen in all levels.

 

[mdwh]

I'm sorry but that is BS.
The social taboo is only strong enough if the society is against it in all cases. Otherwise it could lead to situation that it becomes less of taboo and will start to interest people.
Or are you saying that legalizing example marihuana ain't favouring it?

No - with legalisation of drugs, I am favouring it, but that's because I don't think drugs should be taboo in the first place. Just because some things should be legal because I favour them doesn't mean that *all* things are legal because I favour them.

A better example would be fake child porn - this is legal in the US (due to freedom of speech), but actually illegal in the UK. A guy was recently prosecuted for editing images of women to look underage, even though he never intended to distribute. When this came up on the forums, quite a few people thought it should be legal.

I think that shouldn't be illegal, but I certainly wouldn't say that I would favour or encourage people to be attracted to underage children. Just that I don't think it should be a criminal offence when no harm has been caused.

It's up to you to provide evidence that having incest - or fake child porn - legal causes an increase in how often it happens.

They need some serious counseling (mandatory), not jail time.

Not quite so bad then, just remember that prison is the usual punishment when things are illegal.

The point here is that you can create get control over the child during when you raise him/her and then when he/she is adult, have sex with her/him.

Okay I see that point, but note that (a) it doesn't apply to two brothers or sisters, and (b) unless the law is worded appropriately to only cover the parent, the grown-up child would also be guilty of incest.

Sex is a drug and need to be controlled in some way.

Sex between consenting adults in private is *not* something that should be controlled by other people. It's the desire to control other people's sex which is dangerous, and it's those people who think that who need counselling!

 

[FriendlyFire]

Jerry Springer ?

 

[Irish Caesar]

What did Adam and Eve's children do o_O

Risk of birth defects is probably significantly smaller if your parents both had perfect DNA.

 

[MobBoss]

Tell that to Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve were not brother and sister.

 

[Neomega]

There are reasons why most people do not have sex with their siblings or parents, and never would. In fact, consentual incest at the brother/sister or father/daughter level is rare, if unheard of. Most incest in these cases is also statutory rape.