Legality of incest?

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the secular case is a health one. Whose to say its immoral if it is between two adults and consentual, whose to say any forms of sexual relations is immoral if it is between two adults and and consentual. If it is not unhealthy and they use protection so that they don't make mentally inept children, the secular and consistent answer should be yes, it is fine if those two requirements are met.

I live in the Deep South. It's pretty common for second cousins to marry here. First cousins can't legally marry, but I know a couple who are first cousins who live together. I think for cousins, it depends really. If you are raised like brother and sister then it's sort of gross, but I really have no problems with cousins being together.

The thing about having messed up kids is not exactly correct. You simply have a higher chance of having a child with problems because you both likely have the same recessive genes. If those genes match up, thats when the child has a problem. My sister in law married her second cousin (by blood, not marriage) and they have two beautiful, smart, grown girls. The younger one is about to have her first baby now. She didn't marry a cousin.

Brother/sister incest is different. I think it's because of the mindset that you are raised together with. The kind of love you have for your sibling is very different from the kind you have for a romantic partner. I couldn't see switching off the deeper and different sibling love to have a romantic love, which while deep, is different. Also, if you break up with them, they are still blood kin. Close kin at that.

Parent/child incest to me is extremely wrong. I have children. Two boys and two girls. My oldest boy is almost 23 and grown with a child of his own. I know he's a grown man, but to me he's still my little boy. I could never see him in the same way I might see another guy his age. Although to me, boys his age are still little boys to me. I wouldn't be a good cougar at all.

As I mentioned on another thread, unintentional half sibling incest may be on the rise soon, because of the popularity of sperm banks. There is really no way to know, without genetic testing, if two people who were conceived via a sperm bank, are in fact siblings. Also, not every sperm donor child knows they were conceived that way. I would imagine that if a couple were dating and found out their mothers both used sperm banks and the same bank or city, they might get tested to make sure they weren't related, but if they don't know, then there could potentially be a problem if the recessive genes match up.

I saw something on a talk show years ago about a couple overseas somewhere who met at college, dated, married, had kids, and one of the kids had a problem. They subsequently got lots of medical tests and found out they were full siblings. Twins even. They had just thought it was cool that they had the same birthday. Their mother had given them both up for adoption at birth. For some reason they were given to seperate families and never knew of each others existence. The courts wanted to annul the marriage but they were fighting to stay married, because they couldn't see each other as siblings.

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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
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I remember the case of the married twins somewhat.

I don't see why their marriage should be broken up, but I think they should be barred from having any more children.

Here is another interesting twist

http://gma.yahoo.com/polo-club-founder- ... -news.html

I didn't know that you could adopt an adult. If his relationship with his girlfriend includes coitus, then he will be committing incest.

Lemon Incest

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6bOIX_QsDE[/youtube]

I think there are two sides to the issue, and visa kinda pointed out something which isn't all that different from my personal views (pointing to legality).

I don't see what's morally wrong with 1st cousins pairing up. It's aunts/uncles-nephews/nieces I take issue with. Obviously I think brother-sister pairing is wrong, and I also think it's improper for step-siblings to have sex as well as for step-parents/-children. I'd even extend that to adopted children/siblings as well. Obvious reasons aside, I think there's just too much room for exploitive relationships when things like that happen. I'm not all that concerned with genetic factors, though that is also good reason to avoid close relationships. But 1st cousins are far enough apart for genetic diversity and minimize negative effects from recessive defects.

Where I see a problem is when the law is involved. I don't mind admitting that my views are largely faith-motivated, and if we all agree (religious or not) that certain things are "just wrong" and should be outlawed, then fine. What I see as a problem is that certain behaviors previously largely thought of as taboo are now "tolerated" and sexual permissiveness is largely culturally accepted. I think it's hypocritical and inconsistent to bar certain actions and not others. If it is illegal for adult brothers-sisters or fathers-daughters, etc. to pair as consenting individuals, then I think one ought to at least consider why it is we allow other kinds of activity previously defined as illegal.

There's another interesting phenomenon out there with which we will have to come to grips:

Half-siblings, not known to each other, forming a sexual relationship.

When a relatively small number of sperm donors are providing the bulk of the supply available for fertility treatment for couples with an infertile male, that creates a wide pool of half-siblings who have no idea that they are genetically related to each other.

While step-siblings, known to each other, present no particular concern, half-siblings not known to each other present a highly elevated risk of congenital defects in their offspring. And we have groups of hundreds of these half-siblings out there.

My opinion is "ew". I am sure my sisters share my opinion.