I can't believe there's yet ANOTHER incest thread on this forum. Is this really such a pressing issue, given all the much greater injustices and restrictions on personal liberty going on? We need to have this big ethical debate yet again cause some perv in Germany wants to bang his sister?
Sorry mate, for bringing up the topic, it hadn't come up in the months I have been on here. It was the consentual adults bit that I wanted to concentrate on. Does this rule apply on every single occasion etc. And after the reading the replies it seems that indeed there is logical, dispassionate view that could be espoused, hell the whole hog, incest marriage! I mean if If you follow the argument for the legalisation of gay marriage to its logical conclusion then marriage is a private matter between the people involved and of no relevance to wider society, so I expect it is only a matter of time until incest and multiple person marriages are legalised.
Moi - do you think those people who oppose incest couplings are secretly yearning for sibling shenanigans, a la your homophobe-are-secret-gay thread?
The argument that the child of incestuous parents could have genetic abnormalities is true, but so could the child of parents with genetic abnormalities and they aren't banned from having sex. So could children born in areas of the world where there has been industrial pollution, but that's not banned. So could drinking or smoking during pregnancy, but that's not banned. As could births to over forty year olds, but that's not banned.
Sometimes I think age is a social constuct and some people require a lot longer than sixteen years to reach emotional maturity and some i suspect are not ready at 21. But that is another thread.
I don't actually believe that private behaviour has no public effect. Homosexual marriage, pre-marital sex, marriage, divorce, having children, raising children, adoption, drug taking, addiction, beliefs, all have social repercussions, something the 'anti-bigot' brigade are unwilling to acknowledge or think about too deeply. For them, individual rights trump societal ones and there can be no debate.