Incest "a fundamental right", says German Ethics Council

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LaNaranja

Member
While I personally find it icky and think it is fucked up to bring a child into the world if you know they have a high chance of them being born with a disability, it is also fucked up to only prevent these particular people from procreating on the basis of "think about the children." As long as other people with hereditary diseases (like Huntington's disease) are allowed to have kids, so should people who engage in incest.

Allowing some people but preventing others is fucked up. They should either all carry a punishment or none of them should.
 
If the wellbeing of offspring really is the issue, I don't see any way we can give any more scrutiny to incest than to other unions that are more likely to produce children with health issues. Either the possibility of producing or passing on genetic defects and health problems is a factor, or it isn't. It doesn't suddenly become a factor just because they're siblings, and I don't think it'd be reasonable to proscribe that other non-sibling couples be celibate/not procreate if their union carries similar risks. (Though perhaps if studies showed that incest was the greatest risk factor, that would be a pretty good justification for prohibiting incest.)

Parent-child incest is another issue entirely, as it's necessary for parents to have certain legal obligations if enforcing parental responsibility is going to be a thing. Same reason we place restrictions on teacher-student relationships, except in this case your role as parent never expires. The balance of power and responsibility means that these relationships are inherently abusive (and the child reaching the age of consent can only do so much to counteract that dynamic).

Siblings obviously don't have the same obligations toward one another. It really does boil down to society considering sibling incest "icky," and of course the offspring health issues problem (though, as I said before, that's not exclusive to incest).
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
With siblings the risk of birth defects is way too high to simply compare it to someone with a genetic defect. You'll be hard pressed to find someone who in themselves makes the likelihood so high. I know people fear the future becoming Gattaca, but we have rules against recklessly playing with guns and explosives and we should likewise have rules against reckless procreation.
 

Kathian

Banned
Problem is you are making a moral judgement; who does arresting anyone actually help?

@richiek

Is that to say people with STD's should be banned from mating and anyone with illness in their genes be banned from breeding?
 

collige

Banned
With siblings the risk of birth defects is way too high to simply compare it to someone with a genetic defect. You'll be hard pressed to find someone who in themselves makes the likelihood so high.
Huntington's is precisely what you describe.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Huntington's is precisely what you describe.
Then make that illegal, too.

Yes, I realize you're going to hit a point of arbitrary "unacceptable" percentage, but all laws are like that, especially ones regarding recklessness.
 

Slavik81

Member
The difference is that people with disabilities have no workaround.

People having incest have billions of other mate options available to them.
Many do. If the disease is a recessive trait, they can simply find someone who does not have it. That could be most of the population.

If the disease is a dominant trait, having their child with someone who doesn't have it makes it significantly less likely to be a problem. After a few generations of that strategy, the disease would likely be bred out of existence.

There's a lot we can do, if you want society to go down that path.
 

Rembrandt

Banned
Many do. If the disease is a recessive trait, they can simply find someone who does not have it. That could be most of the population.

If the disease is a dominant trait, having their child with someone who doesn't have it makes it significantly less likely to be a problem. After a few generations of that strategy, the disease would likely be bred out of existence.

There's a lot we can do, if you want society to go down that path.

well there's the big difference. they're sleeping with people outside of family and aren't purposely seeking out others with diseases. even if by chance they do, there's a fundamental difference between that and incest, imo.
 

frostshade

Neo Member
Think of the children before you act.

@any parent/parent to be with genetic conditions/defects.

I'd find it pretty fucked up though if a carrier for sickle cell anemia gives birth to a child with severely misshaped blood cells.

just saying. :X
 

McLovin

Member
Hey if it's two consenting adults, then I don't see why I have any right to tell them no.

Not really my thing, but I'm not going to disagree with Germany on this one.
Honestly if they don't have children then (yeah it's fucking gross) but if it doesn't effect anyone then I wouldn't have a problem. But your almost guaranteed to have genetic defects in the children and that's just unfair to them. If it's father daughter or mother son then I do have a problem with it. Since it would probably involve some kind of manipulation or something. This whole topic makes me uncomfortable that's for sure.
 
Personally, I don't see anything necessarily wrong with it, but siblings (or other closely related relatives) should under no circumstances be allowed to have children. They have a far higher risk of inheriting genetic disorders and it's just not fair to those kids.
 
I don't see the problem with incest. People can fuck whoever they want.

The problem comes with incest's high chances of producing babies with genetic malfunctions, but idk, making it illegal gets dangerously close to eugenics, I guess.

A really difficult moral dilemma.
 
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