Poll: I know I'm probably going to hell for this, but...

[Gigano]

If it takes place solely between consenting adults, then the law have no business regulating it.

Of course, procreation ultimately doesn't take place solely between consenting adults, so there's an argument for criminalizing incestuous breeding. But since sex and pregnancy aren't linked anymore, sexual relationships - especially those from which no offspring can result anyway, like same sex relationships - shouldn't be banned.

One could perhaps make sterilization a requirement for the legality of the heterosexual ones though. But that's such an intensive invasion of an individual's personal life, so probably better to simply outlaw incestuous procreation, and punish those then do so anyway (which is usually the only way these kinds of relationships are discovered by the authorities anyway, so it'd make for a far more enforceable law as well).

Generally, it takes some pretty fucked up internal psychological conditions and/or external environmental conditions to want to bed your brother/sister/father etc., but human sexuality have tons of bizarre outlets, and as long as they take place only between consenting adults, then banning them should be out of the question.

If you want to counter this stuff (or rather the social instability which is frequently, but not always, behind it), more extensive social services to support unstable families, and access to free mental health care, would be the way to go. Unlike some unenforceable ban, those measures might also actually work to reduce it.

 

[Scrubiii]

It should be illegal. It's not incest I have a problem with, it's the results. Imagine a child gets a disability because their parents are related. Any child with a disability gets enough abuse at school as it is. If the other kids at their school find out their parents are brother and sister, it'll be a miracle if they make it through education without some serious depression and a case of Borderline Personality Disorder. But it wont end there. Adults are just as disgusted by incest as children are, if not more. Plenty of people will avoid them and they will be viciously discriminated against. Couple that with a potentially major disability that they will have to cope with their whole life and they will have one of the most miserable lives imaginable. If incest was legalised, even if a law was passed saying you could not have children, there would still be some people who would. How would you enforce a law like that? Forced abortions? Would any child who is born as the product of an incestuous relationship be an illegal child? Does that mean they have less rights than other children? They aren't a valid citizen of the nation they are born in? No. It should be illegal, thats the only way.

 

[blankedboy]

Having a sexual relationship? Knock yourself out.
Having children? No.

Pretty much this, although incest is pretty much evolution sped up about 1600x so it can't be all bad to see the results.
Not in real life, obviously, but in META ALTERNATE WORLD it'd be awesome to see.

 

[Sandernista]

It's gross, but I'm not going to stop you.

 

[BGH122]

I don't think it should be illegal. It should be illegal to bear a child from a first degree relative, but beyond that it shouldn't be illegal if it violates no other law.

 

[MasterMuffinMan]

I think my main issue with legalising it is the possibility for the law to be abused. There's no grey area with incest laws (it either happened or it didn't), whereas trying to prove consent or lack thereof is a whole different issue. If it could be guaranteed that it would be kept between consenting adults, then sure, go for it, but that's not a certain thing. Of course, if someone's the kind of person that would abuse that law, the current total illegality of it won't stop them, so my argument is pretty much invalid.

In the UK, first cousins are allowed to marry, so presumably the risk of genetic defects is sufficiently reduced at that level of separation. I'm still against making siblings having children legal, though. It's one thing if someone has a hereditary genetic illness, or if they're a woman over 35, because that's not something that they can help. However, deliberately conceiving a child in an incestuous situation (where there is undoubtedly choice involved) isn't right, IMO.

 

[TheDarkestDerp]

2 grown consenting adults of sound mind are involved, pay their taxes and all that crap just like everyone else? Let 'em have at it. It's none of my business. They want kids? Also none of my business. We (Amerikans) let all manner of screwed up people reproduce everyday and indoctrinate kids into unhealthy genetic trees, horrifying living conditions and outright terrifying cultural mores, I can't see this as being any different.

 

[qwertyzxy27]

honestly as long as you don't go around saying HEY I JUST F**** MY SISTER. who is going to know anyways? It may be illegal but unless the government puts cameras in the bedroom nobody is going to know. In other words it doesn't matter if its illegal if two consenting siblings want to screw they have probably already done it.

 

[pyramid head grape]

I feel sick ...

 

[Leg End]

If they want to, fuck-em!

...

I just don't want to know about it!

XDXDXDXDXD

I feel sick ...

You avatar makes that statement hilarious. :/

 

[Venereus]

There's a reason incest is universally forbidden by most cultures. Endogamy is bad for evolution. Other than that, I don't mind it.

 

[templeg]

But it isn't inherently unnatural, is it? Plenty of animals mate with their parents/siblings/whatever, look at lions. And I'm fairly sure that at least some of those pairs have offspring. So if by 'unnatural', you mean a sexual deviation from the norm unique to humans, then no, I don't think it is.

 

[Leg End]

But it isn't inherently unnatural, is it? Plenty of animals mate with their parents/siblings/whatever, look at lions. And I'm fairly sure that at least some of those pairs have offspring. So if by 'unnatural', you mean a sexual deviation from the norm unique to humans, then no, I don't think it is.

I brofist you for this statement.

 

[similar.squirrel]

I'm in favour of genetic screening as a perquisite for those who wish to have a child. Yes, I'm aware of the horrible eugenic connotations, but neither society, parents nor the child itself really wants to live with a condition like haemophilia.
This should apply doubly to those who wish to procreate with a blood-relative. Bringing a severely disabled child into this world is a horrible thing to do, especially when you know that it can be avoided quite easily.
And..incest disgusts me. We know far too much about genetics to even consider it to be an acceptable behaviour.

 

[NoNameMcgee]

As long as they are of age and don't have children, then of course; go nuts, theres nothing objectively wrong with it.

 

[Togs]

from a biological and genetic stand point its a very bad idea, which where the stigma comes from in the 1st place.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

The risks of having a severely deformed child through incest is actually fairly negligible.

If both partners are carriers of identical harmful recessive alleles, there's a chance of those alleles being passed to the child in homozygous form (i.e. the harmful trait being expressed). In-breeding means both partners come from the same genetic stock, and so they're more likely to both be carriers of the same harmful alleles than unrelated partners (50% more likely for brother-sister, 25% for first cousins, 12.5% for second cousins, etc.).

However, that in itself is not a great justification for being anti-incest. Consider this: your wife unfortunately is a carrier for the same bad genes you are (e.g. hemophilia), but your sister just so happens not to be (i.e. homozygous dominant). By applying the logic "do what's best for the child", you should dump your wife and have sex with your sister. And the law -- if based on the same principle -- should make it illegal to have sex with your wife (and encourage you to bang your sis).


The simple fact is that incest laws are based on social taboos, not rationality.
That said, society in general is constructed the same way. A purely rational society would be some sort of Ayn Rand bullshit (like, well, Rapture from Bioshock).
Malinowski called society a kind of "tapestry". If you pull out one thread, you never know how much you'll unravel.

 

[Joccaren]

Although I find the thought of it somewhat disturbing, a relationship between two family members of the same approximate age should not be illegal. I am against father/daughter mother/son stuff almost entirely due to the possibility of manipulation by the older person.
I am also strongly against them having children. I still would not make it illegal, but I would be strongly against it.
For the argument of genetic diseases, there are enough retards (not literal, just what I count a fair portion of the general population as due to their amazingly flawed thinking) in this world that a few more shouldn't matter that much. Not to mention that genetic diseases occur even in non-incestual relationships, the only extra problem would be the social stigma on incest. Yes, there is a higher chance of genetic disease occurring, but you'd have to hope that the parents would teach their children, or the two adults would be mature enough to realise, this and make an informed and well thought out choice on having a child, hopefully reducing the number of children that would be had by this method.
In all reality, the argument of society's opinion on incest is the strongest one. The children and parents could not let on, but there is still a fair bit of risk. I would probably not make it legal until all of society accepted the idea anyway.

I have nothing against incestual relationships, but I don't want to be involved in any way with them (including being told about them, IMO, they can, and should, keep it to themselves.

 

[Outright Villainy]

As long as it doesn't result in offspring, which is just cruel. In fact, such wanton disregard for their children should be punishable, but other than that I have nothing against it morally.

I still find it utterly repulsive though.

 

[LightspeedJack]

Perhaps we should pretend we're in the real world and not on the internet for a minute:
Fuck no.

You want children born with 8 fingers on each hand?