Of course, being pedantic - all couplings are to some degree incestuous, since we're all cousins to some degree - it's just that an indeterminate minority like to go quite a few degrees closer in genetic similarity than the rest of us. I never have found the "genetic" (frankly eugenic) defence of the visceral "yuck" reaction, and illegality of incest to be convincing - even allowing for incestuous couples who do decide to reproduce. But the fact is that not all consensually incestuous couples are capable of, or want to, reproduce together - and are still stigmatised, penalised and criminalised - for sexual activity, patently non-abusive, between consenting adults, in private... The "genetic" rationalisation just won't wash - particularly when one fails to mete out the same level of bile and reproductive constraints against CONFIRMED but less closely related carriers of recessive defects.
The article puts this, and other things, quite well: http://www.slate.com/id/2277787/
Have at it.Incest Is Cancer
The David Epstein incest case: If homosexuality is OK, why is incest wrong?
Incest is for hicks. That's the stereotype among educated liberals: Homosexuality is urbane, polygamy is for Mormons, and incest is for hayseeds. So when David Epstein, a Columbia University political scientist, was charged last week with third-degree incest for allegedly shagging his adult daughter, the blogosphere erupted. Conservatives called it another sign of moral chaos. Liberals said it was gross but shouldn't be prosecuted. One side defends the privacy of all consensual sex; the other side sees an inexorable descent from homosexuality to incest.
Let's try to come up with something better. If gay sex is OK, how can incest be wrong?
The old answer was genetics. Germany's high court relied on that argument two years ago when it upheld the conviction of Patrick Stuebing for sex with his sister. Of the four children the couple produced, three had physical or mental disabilities. In general, studies show a significantly higher rate of birth defects in offspring of incestuous couples. The reason is simple: Every family has genetic flaws, and if you reproduce within your family, you're more likely to get two copies of the flaw—thereby producing the defective trait—instead of acquiring a new, protective allele from another family.
Many incest laws in the United States invoke this concept. In patently eugenic language, they forbid sex between "consanguineous" (blood-related) partners. But this rationale won't withstand close scrutiny or the march of technology. If genetics is the issue, just get a vasectomy. Then you can bang your sister all you want. Or skip the vasectomy and bang your brother. Gay sex can't make a baby, so the problem is solved. As the German court noted, Stuebing could have dodged Germany's incest law in precisely this way.
Epstein has been charged under a different law. It prohibits sex with any close relative, "whether through marriage or not." It also applies not just to "sexual intercourse" but also to "oral sexual conduct or anal sexual conduct." If the law were rationally based on genetics, it would ignore sex acts that can't make babies, and it would distinguish relatives by blood from relatives by marriage.
What about the Scottish woman who was sentenced to probation—and remains under threat of further prosecution—for sex with her half-brother? She was sterilized years ago. You can't prosecute her based on a risk of birth defects.
So let's set aside genetics and consider the next question: exploitation. Nowadays, when we talk about incest, we tend to think of child sexual abuse. That's how we use the term in the repressed-memory debate and in abortion legislation. When politicians such as President Obama make exceptions in abortion laws for "rape and incest," they're using the terms synonymously, except that in the incest scenario, the rapist is your dad.
But you can't prosecute Epstein under that theory. According to news reports, his daughter is 24, and their affair began in 2006. That makes her an adult. Furthermore, police say the sex appears to have been consensual. Four years ago, Ohio's Supreme Court upheld the incest conviction of Paul Lowe, a former sheriff's deputy, for what the court called "consensual sex with his 22-year-old stepdaughter." And last month, a 27-year-old Florida woman was sentenced to five years of probation for sex with her father. Clearly, we're prosecuting people for incest regardless of age or consent.
[and so article goes on...]
