"consenting adults" taken one step further or just too far?

[Rapscallion]

I'd have thought maybe two generations of inbreeding for significant defects to arise, but it's interesting to see it's more than that needed. Thanks!

In that case, as long as there are some safeguards to say that it can't continue past a generation or three then it's no real issue. The chance of spiderman cannot be ignored!

Actually, there aren't any Marvel or DC superheroes getting their powers from incest, are there? Maybe we ought to look at the Indy market for that.

Rapscallion

[Hyena Dandy]

Actually, there aren't any Marvel or DC superheroes getting their powers from incest, are there? Maybe we ought to look at the Indy market for that.

I think Magneto's kids in the Ultimates...

[dendawg]

I think Magneto's kids in the Ultimates...

Not quite....they engage in incest but are not a product thereof.

[BlaqueKatt]

Last I heard, the risk of genetic defects was much higher with sibling parents.

actually the risk is around 7%, which is lower than the risk of birth defects from a perfectly healthy 45 year-old female having a child with anyone, the risk of that is 10%

If the "birth defects" issuse is the only justification to saying what adults can do in the privacy of their own homes then we need to outlaw drinking/smoking during pregnancy (which we don't and it would be a big deal to do this). We'd also need to prevent 2 carriers of a genetic disease from procreating. Which is getting into eugenics territory. If two carriers of cyctic fibrosis have a child it's a 25% chance the child will have CF, are they precluded from having a child if they so choose?

children of unrelated parents have a 3 to 4 percent chance of being born with a serious birth defect. Children of first cousins have only a slighter higher risk--roughly a 4 to 7 percent chance. It's bunk used to justify forcing religious laws as a standard of "morality"(thanks puritians!)

The Origins of Incest Laws

Incest laws in this country have largely religious origins. In England, incest was punishable only in ecclesiastical courts, which ostensibly applied the law of Leviticus prohibiting persons more closely related than fourth cousins to marry. This ban applied equally to relations by blood and by marriage, based on the canonical maxim that husband and wife were one, and therefore equally related to each other's kin.
Prohibitions on cousin marriage are unique to the United States. Most other countries permit first-cousin marriages without restriction, and the rate of cousin marriages in some countries is as high as 60 percent of all marriages.

I don't see legions of deformed humans running around every other country but the US, do you?

[PepperElf]

The stigma against cousins is pretty much exclusive to western countries ( no one else has a problem with them ) and might be a result of bearing witness to European royalty's track record. >.>

not entirely. iirc about 17 or 18 states have no laws against first cousin marriage. (except one state that bans it if you & your cousin are also born to a set of cousins etc).

my own home state allows it, although personally i'd never be attracted to mine.



as for anti-incest laws, iirc most countries and cultures have some sort of law, although how they define relations will vary from culture to culture.

[phoenixv07]

not entirely. iirc about 17 or 18 states have no laws against first cousin marriage. (except one state that bans it if you & your cousin are also born to a set of cousins etc).

There are a few states that allow it only in cases where children aren't a possibility, IIRC.

Personally, I think that what goes on between consenting adults behind closed doors is no one's business but theirs.

[Hyena Dandy]

Not quite....they engage in incest but are not a product thereof.

Oh, I thought he just meant having incest-based powers.

They're so unremarkable and annoying otherwise that I count incest as their superpower.

[Mytical]

What two (or more) consenting adults do in the privacy of their own home is really none of our business. As somebody else pointed out, a few of the anti-homosexual crowd would find homosexual sex to be 'squick' worthy. If we banned everything that somebody found to be that..we'd never have any sex and all children would be test tube children. Personally there is not a female in my family I find attractive. If I was directly related to somebody like Mila Jovovich..all bets would be off For all I know a female in my family is just as attractive, but I fail to see it because they are related.

If it is consensual, the two (or more) parties know enough to be able to consent, and it's not forced on anybody in any way shape or form...its all good.

[kiwi]

I don't believe the government should have ANY rights over relationships at all between consenting adults so I would be hypocritical if I was against this.
I don't think the state should govern marriage, divorce, seperation, anything as long as it is between two mentally capable consenting adults.

That said, tt does however gross me out, I think its morally wrong, it's icky. I don't think you should go to jail for it though but I wouldn't want to be around you.

[telecom_goddess]

slightly off topic but I've never heard of fibromyalgia being a genetic disorder before....

One thing that sometimes happens that's interesting, and it's shown up in movies/tv shows before...is a couple (one female, the other male) meet, and then their single parents meet and you end up with a second couple. If all get married technically you're marrying your step brother/step sister. But you didn't become step anything until after the parents married.

[Gravekeeper]

not entirely. iirc about 17 or 18 states have no laws against first cousin marriage. (except one state that bans it if you & your cousin are also born to a set of cousins etc).

I didn't say law, I said stigma. As in the squick factor people have when you mention it in the west. Over here, the implication that you're farkin' your cousin or your parents were cousins is a derogatory. In Japan, the cousin is a potential love interest in 75% of all romantic comedies. -.-

[Ginger Tea]

I read an article once where two people from other sides of the country met online and decided to hook up, on their first date they had found they had too much in common, to the extent that they were actually brother and sister seperated at an orphanage.
Biologically they are related, but moraly raised by different families in different parts of the country, they would have been non the wiser if they had not had such a conversation.

Again another story, perhaps posted here, a grandmother finds her long since adopted grandson and they both fall in love.
Squick factor engaged if you must, but she never saw him grow up her son/daughter gave him up for adoption early on, save for the biological link, their relationship is no different to any other late teenager who fancies the pants of OAP's MILF's and Cougars.

If two brothers fall in love with two sisters, is it legal for the 2nd couple to marry if the first has now made the others inlaws?
(or swap two brothers for brother + sister / brother + sister)

Step sister/brother no biological link, no harm no foul incest wise, but is it legal if their parents are still together keeping the step sister/brother part active?
Say their parents divorced and they each stayed with their respective biological parent, would they be legaly allowed to hook up later on?

or same parent dynamic, but both children live with their respective other parent.

[AdminAssistant]

If two brothers fall in love with two sisters, is it legal for the 2nd couple to marry if the first has now made the others inlaws?
(or swap two brothers for brother + sister / brother + sister)

Legal, and fairly common back in ye olden day. Actually happened in my family. My grandfather married my grandmother, then his brother married her sister.

[MrsEclipse]

My mom's brother married my dad's sister a few years after they did. I'm more genetically similar to my double-cousins than I would be to regular cousins, but less so than to my actual siblings. But I would never marry any of my cousins because they're yucky, and also reverse imprinting.

Mom has one more sister, but none of my dad's brothers are biting.

[jackfaire]

Kind of glad I don't live in Idaho. There was a town that my great grandfather helped build. When I went there after my grandma passed for a memorial I was checking out various attractive people that turned out to be my cousins.

Personally it wouldn't bother me if I didn't grow up with them but I know it would be difficult to live with everyone else.