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

[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?

 

[Mitsozuka]

Eh, hell with it. I say if they want to have sex, go nuts. Just... don't inbreed. Things never go well if you do. x.x

 

[DefinitelyPsychotic]

I wouldn't personally do it, but I don't see a problem with other people doing it.

 

[TiefBlau]

Is there a "No, but ew" option available?

 

[Smertnik]

I don't really see an issue with incest as long as you don't plan to have children. That's really the only viable reason against it.

 

[Sparrow]

I think it's icky and should be killed with fire, but that's just me.

 

[Zeema]

i dont think people related by blood shouldn't have a Sexual relationship with each other. I just don't think it should happen, seems disgusting to me.

 

[Shuswah_Noir]

I don't like the idea of incest, and it's for a reason that I guarantee you've never heard before.

Siblings are nice and all but I see enough of them as it is. I kind of got over the whole "sharing my life" thing with them when I was growing up, I wouldn't want to be emotionally tied to them in adulthood as well. Seems to defeat the entire purpose of becoming an adult, which is to break away from the family unit and forge your own path. That, to me, is the real damage that incest does - it keeps people emotionally stunted. It's against growth and change, but in an ever-growing, ever-changing world it's good to learn to adapt to those things and not live in a bubble.

This

When it comes to incest, as long as you don't reproduce and create some retarded offspring, only do it recreationally, go right ahead. Absolutely no problems with that.

Polygamy I also have no problems with, but only if it works both ways.

And this



If you're of consenting age, and are not going to breed (this includes getting an abortion if you do fall pregnant), then I don't see why not. But if you choose to, you are limiting your own emotional growth.

 

[Gigano]

...

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.

That same argument could be put forth in regard to interracial marriage and homosexuality back when they were social taboos as well. Don't think anybody miss those times, the vast majority are happy that society evolved by "taking the plunge" away from such irrational discriminatory bullshit. It's utterly conservative and ethically stagnant at heart.

This taboo is based largely in religious notions which were constructed in backwards societies where there was no feasible way of separating sex from pregnancy, marriage was the only accepted form of having sex anyway, and personal liberty didn't really count for anything.

All those societal factors have certainly changed; why shouldn't the norms change with them?

 

[Findlebob]

Providing it isnt for the intention of having children then go for it if you must.

 

[EddySpaghetti]

I think the number of posts the acc that created this thread has, answers all the questions.

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

If both people are past the age of consent, it should be perfectly legal, though reproduction should be heavily discouraged or outright banned.

Now, the dangers of flipper babies (as a symbol for all defects) appearing are initially fairly small, so if this is first-generation incest we're talking about, then it's no big deal if they have kids. Those dangers increase dramatically with each new generation though.

 

[SpaceSpork]

As long as there is some consent in the relationship, then yes, an incestual relationship should be legal. However, the should not be allowed to bear children on their own, because SCIENCE has shown that incestual children are very very very often deformed. They can still adopt if they want to.