Switzerland might make incest legal.

[vociferocity]

cross-generational incestuous relationships are pretty much the only ones I have problems with; the power imbalances can be seriously skeevy. not to say that sibling/sibling or I guess cousin/cousin relationships definitely don't have creepy dynamics either, but I think on the whole there's less of a chance for the younger person to have been coerced into it.

also they would seriously need to monitor female/male incestuous relationships for pregnancy; I don't think anyone wants incest-born babies hanging around

 

[higgs20]

having said that what's worse off the kid who's born with a degenerative disorder or the kid that never exists.

I'll devil's advocate your devil's advocate.

So, we are morally obliged to have as many children as humanly possible, since a child, even if they have a shitty life, is better than no life at all. This is an extension of your logic, correct me if it isn't.

you pretty much ignored the more important parts of that post but if that's what you want to focus on then fine, that's not what I was saying at all, so yes you are wrong. what I was saying is that two people abstain from having a child purely because of a higher risk of x disorder/disease developing i.e in the case of an incest couple is not necessarily the better choice. consider yourself corrected.

 

[Agayek]

That's the problem; couples who love each other will want children. If they didn't why do gay people care about the right to adopt?

You can't turn round to a group of people and say 'due to your lifestyle choice we have decided you can't have children'. Our drive to reproduce is one of our strongest natural drives, you physically can't forbid people to have children, it's not a sustainable situation. Incest laws are there to stop children being born horribly deformed.

Actually, incest laws are in place because of the strict social taboo about the subject. There's some debate about the origin of such taboos, but it seems fairly likely the Westermarck Effect [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprinting_%28psychology%29#Westermarck_effect] has something to do with it. If you're too lazy to read Wikipedia, the Westermarck effect basically says that humans will "reverse sexually imprint" on people they grow up with. The effect runs from birth until around the age of six, and anyone that you are in close proximity to on a regular basis in that period will simply not be sexually attractive to you.


To get back somewhat on topic, my take on the topic of incest is exactly the same as my stance on gays or fetishists: No one has any right to decide what two consenting adults can or cannot do.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

If people entering into very close incestuous relationships are willing to be fixed, I have no problem with it I guess.

People in relationships where it won't likely cause deformity, I say go ahead.

 

[internetzealot1]

Good on them.

 

[Sacman]

Good... People should be able to love whoever they damn well please...<.<

 

[TheAmazingHobo]

I think it is time, that we, as a nation, nay, as a species, should stand up and declare loud and clear: everbody should be allowed to boing with whomever he wishes
(assuming both parties are adults and consenting, of course.)

And people bringing up birth defects:
yeah, no.
1. That´s not how Genetics work. Seriously, it´s not.
2. We allow pregnant women to drink and smoke the fuck out of their babies.
No legal high ground there.

 

[Contun]

Spoiler: No... just... ew.

 

[Ethylene Glycol]

If two people wants to have sex and both are in on it;
There's no law in history that is gonna stop them.

Just don't have kids.

Personal Standpoint: It's their choice. I have no moral quarrels with this.

I agree wholeheartedly with this, and really have nothing to add.

Although, first-generation inbreeding only has an 8% chance of defects, from what I hear. It just goes up exponentially with successive generations of it.

 

[SadisticPretzel]

What two consenting people do in their home on their time is their issue. I say good cookies.

 

[Lem0nade Inlay]

I don't think that under any circumstances they should be allowed to have children.

But I mean I think that as long as two consenting adults aren't hurting anyone/eachother, they should be allowed to do it.

Even though it's super weird and gross...

 

[Phoenixlight]

What a horribly stupid thing for Switzerland to even consider, it's wrong and causes so many problems.

 

[YouBecame]

Check Norfolk for the results of inbreeding.

 

[Trivun]

If two people wants to have sex and both are in on it;
There's no law in history that is gonna stop them.

Just don't have kids.

Personal Standpoint: It's their choice. I have no moral quarrels with this.

My thoughts exactly. If two people are consenting adults and want to have sex then why should the fact that they're related prevent them from doing so? And if those two people are, God forbid, in love with each other, then again, why should the fact that they are related be a problem? At the end of the day, if nobody is getting hurt then why should it be anyone else's business what two consenting adults do in their own time, regardless of their relationship to each other. Obviously the laws about kids should stay up (well, paedophilia laws really) because no-one wants to see kids getting molested by their families. But regarding two consenting adults why should incest be something bad?

Incest itself doesn't need to be a taboo subject, even. Incest is a perfectly normal thing in some cultures, and considered a way of life, but because modern society and so-called 'civilized' culture deem it to be something wrong and disgusting that's what everyone thinks of it as. And that's just not true at all. Regarding what people say about kids being born with problems and handicaps and stuff because of incest, that's a load of crap too. If the bloodline gets mixed up too much then fine, some problems may occur, but that's only after several generations of inbreeding, and for proof just look at the British royal family around Queen Victoria's time. All the inbreeding that happened before her reign because of the European mix-and-match approach to royal marriages, and what happened? All they got was a tendency to suffer from hemophilia. My point - incest doesn't necessarily cause problems with children, at least unless those problems are already there to begin with.

I realise I'm going off on a tangent here, so I'll end my post with just this. Incest is not sick, it's not wrong, and it certainly isn't unhealthy. It's just one of the random quirks that make up so many other factors of life and love, and if two people who are related actually fall in love with each other then why should they be prevented from being together? There's nothing wrong with incest, just society's view on the subject.

 

[SturmDolch]

Alright I just realized something.

This law will never be passed.

Switzerland relies on referendums for everything. That is why they saw the minarets being banned, something no politician would have the guts to do.

People in Switzerland are not going to vote this through. There's no way. No chance in hell. It's an old country, built on traditional values. Yes, it's modern, too. But not this modern.

 

[tthor]

a little morally shaky, but i'm fine with it, AS LONG AS the couple does not have any children. but then this brings up some more difficult questions, such as do you force them to get 'fixed' (which would probably be necessary)? and if the couple, by accident or by intent, do get pregnant, what do you do? do you force the couple to have an abortion? if not, then what? or if the couple secretly gave birth to the child, and the government then finds out, what then?
I have just recently finished reading the book 'The Declaration', a book about a near-future society (which had developed a drug that made humans practically immortal,) in which having children was outlawed, and any children that were had illegally became basically slave workers, so mind has been thinking of this topic a bit lately

 

[YukoValis]

interesting..
http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=352040&catid=37

I honestly believe between two adults if consent is given from each, and you don't physically harm another person it should be ok.. situation pending of course. but that's my opinion. What about everyone else here?

Knee-jerk reaction: EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

Slightly more thoughtful reaction:
While I agree fully with people's right to do what they want as long as it's not harming anyone else, incest isn't always a victimless crime. What about if a pregnancy occurs as a result of the incest? Hasn't it been proved that inbreeding can cause serious developmental issues for a baby?

Actually the opposite has been shown. It's just playing with the same genetic material. Think of it like cloning in a way. Do it for 1 or 2 generations and you won't have anything wrong (unless you are unlucky that is) but after that it starts to degrade much further. Which is why families and towns that have been doing it for generations are like that. If you do it once, have a kid, and then they go with a non-family member it breaks the cycle.