Incest – is it really always wrong?
Recently, Channel 4 broadcast the Cutting Edge documentary ‘Sleeping with my sister’. It documents the phenomenon known as Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA), in which re-united siblings, such as half-siblings separated at birth, feel strong romantic and sexual urges towards each other, often resulting in sexual relationships.
Of course, if it reaches this stage it is incest. Yet the laws on incest vary widely from country to country, and in the case of the USA even between states. Though incest between a parent and child is almost universally (and justifiably) illegal, consensual adult incest is legal in Belgium, France, Japan, Israel and some states in the USA. In Sweden, even marriage between siblings is legal, albeit requiring government permission.
This raises the question: is incest between two consenting adults morally wrong? A taboo on incest seems to have developed across the world, meaning is not only condemned but not even discussed. Yet in this modern world where the old barriers on homosexuality and sex outside marriage are being lifted, it is only a matter of time before incest comes to the fore as well.
What arguments, then, are there against sibling incest? Most religions condemn it as unholy, yet give little reasoning for such. The most rational argument against it is that incestous children are much more likely to suffer severe inheritable disabilities, yet this does not deal with those couples who cannot and/or do not want to produce children. Surely, if we are to take the much-used phrase ‘consenting adults’ to its logical conclusion, and create a truly liberated society, we must repeal such foolish laws such as the UK’s 7 year sentence on incest, and take any unnecessary state involvement out of people’s private lives.
