Should incest between consenting adults be a crime?

[rexbeccarox]

What is this "ewe" factor everyone is talking about?

[GrandizerII]

I need to see both sides of the debate thoroughly in order to form a definite opinion on this.

[Fireball]

What is this "ewe" factor everyone is talking about?

Yeah, typo guy got that one through! How've you been? Haven't seen you around much, lately.

[tackattack]

Should incest between consenting adults be a crime?

I think it depends on the circumstances that led them to consent. If they were raised in a well-adjusted environment, then I suppose consenting adults can do what they like.

If they were raised in some nutty religious cult that marries brothers to sisters to please Xenu, then it can be argued that the 18 year olds engaging in insest are only consenting because they'd been brainwashed since birth.

I'm not going to make laws to punish people based on their circumstances... oh wait we already do that. I believe in all states in the US is it illegal to marry or screw your brother/sister.

Is the question on how it should be enforced, abolished or whether it's just?
Here's my hang up, no one wants the government to tell us how to live our lives. We should be free individually to lawfully do what we like and are entitled to do. That's why there is a societal morality because individuals are different. The consensus currently says that it's wrong, we can list several reasons why we believe it's wrong. The only reason for it I see is to allow freedom of choice. Freedom is earned, IMO. license to breed,license to wed... test to pass school... I think you should have to qualify for lots of things that we just arbitrarily set an age for. I think that's ridiculous because all 17 yr olds within a society aren't mentally and emotionally at the same place, not even mentioning other societies.

[Amarok]

How does that sound like a slippery slope?

Because it sounds like Ob is saying if we allow incest it will lead to other social ails without providing a reason why it would follow necessarily from allowing it .

[Shell B]

In those specific instances, not incest in general.

[AFTT47]

Here is an example of what makes this a non-issue:

I consider Barbara Eden the most beautiful woman who has ever lived. For those of different generations or outside the United States or have been living under a rock, she is the US actress most famous for playing the lead character in the 1960s television show, I Dream of Jeannie.

Beauty is a subjective thing of course. In the same era, guys debated the merits of Ginger or Mary Ann concerning the two beauties of Gilligan's Island. The answer to that question is obviously, Mary Ann but I digress.

I was born in 1959; Barbara Eden in 1931. I am 59 at this posting, she is 87. She is my senior by 28 years. She is 8 years older than my mom. If I had the opportunity to embrace and smooch Barbara, I would be on cloud 9. But I honestly don't think the desire would go much beyond that - now or at any point in the past.

Evolution is a bitch regarding the individual. It's all about the success of the species as a whole. There are very powerful compulsions in place which steer the individual to do what benefits the species. As much as I worship the ground Barbara Eden walks on, I believe our difference in generations alone would intervene in making me unlikely to want to father a child by her. This is the woman I think of more as a goddess than a human being.

Imagine then, the compulsions against fathering a child by incest. It's just VERY unlikely. Unlike the fictional Luke and Leia who didn't know they were brother and sister, it is ridiculously unlikely that siblings would have any desire to couple. The evolutionary forces against it are huge. The occasional incidence of where it happens is not a big deal. There are unlikely to be genetic consequences in a single generation. Even if there are, the situation is self-correcting as offspring is then unlikely to pass on their genes.

As I said earlier, I have personally seen the multi-generational consequences of a small breeding population but incest just doesn't figure into it. The built-in evolutionary instincts alone prevent it from ever being an issue.

[Mr.Obvious]

How does that sound like a slippery slope?

Because it sounds like Ob is saying if we allow incest it will lead to other social ails without providing a reason why it would follow necessarily from allowing it .

I don't even understand that sentence.
Probably my fault, language gap.
Could you rephrase?

[Amarok]

Because it sounds like Ob is saying if we allow incest it will lead to other social ails without providing a reason why it would follow necessarily from allowing it .

I don't even understand that sentence.
Probably my fault, language gap.
Could you rephrase?

I was trying to say that it sounds like your saying that if we allowed consensual incest relationships this will be a consequence . Yet you provide no reason why to think this would occur .I hope that clarifies things .

[onlinebiker]

Rarely heard outside of the state of Arkansas ---


"Honey - if we get divorced, will we still be brother and sister?"