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| | |-+  German Committee Says Incest Is a “Fundamental Right”
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Author Topic: German Committee Says Incest Is a “Fundamental Right”  (Read 10486 times)
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« on: October 19, 2014, 11:01:42 PM »

A government-backed ethics council recommends doing away with laws banning sexual relationships between siblings.

Salon.com / By Jenny Kutner
September 28, 2014


A government-backed committee in Germany has recommended that the government abolish laws criminalizing incest between siblings, arguing that such bans impinge upon citizens’ rights to sexual self-determination. According to  findings from the German Ethics Council, that right is a “fundamental” one, and carries more weight than society’s “abstract protection of the family.”

“Incest between siblings appears to be very rare in Western societies according to the available data but those affected describe how difficult their situation is in light of the threat of punishment,” the council said in a statement,  as reported by The Independent. “In the case of consensual incest among adult siblings, neither the fear of negative consequences for the family, nor the possibility of the birth of children from such incestuous relationships can justify a criminal prohibition.”

The question of abolishing incest laws arose on appeal in the case of a man named Patrick Stuebing, who has four children with his sister, Susan Karolewski. The two did not grow up together and met when Stuebing was 24 and Karolewski was 16, and have been romantic partners for several years. Stuebing was convicted of incest in 2008 and attempted to appeal his case to the European Court of Human Rights, to no avail. Karolewski was allowed to keep custody of the couple’s youngest child, but the other three were taken into care by the state. Two of the children are disabled, although it is unknown if incest is the cause.

The couple’s plight highlighted the “tragic situation” many incestuous pairs find themselves in, according to the council. It does not seem as if the government will agree, however, or if it will take the committee’s recommendation. A spokesperson for Angela Merkel’s ruling Christian Democrats party suggested the government is unlikely to abolish incest laws.

“The abolition of the offense of incest between siblings would be the wrong signal,” Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker, legal policy spokeswoman for the party’s group in parliament, said in a statement. “Eliminating the threat of punishment against incestuous acts within families would run counter to the protection of undisturbed development for children.”

http://www.alternet.org/world/german-committee-says-incest-fundamental-right
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« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2014, 11:03:44 PM »

Should Incest Between Consenting Adult Siblings Be Legalized? Experts Sound Off

The Huffington Post  | By Curtis M. Wong
Posted: 10/09/2014 2:02 pm EDT


Responding to a German ethics panel's suggestion of de-criminalizing sex between adult siblings, a group of psychologists and experts joined HuffPost Live this week to discuss whether or not it was appropriate for criminal laws to ban sexual taboos such as incestuous relationships.

"I suppose I take an unpopular view that it's actually moral progress," Jesse Bering, who is the author of Perv: The Sexual Deviant In All Of Us, told HuffPost Live's Josh Zepps. "There are certain caveats that we need to include with our analysis of whether incest is wrong or right, but for me, the biggest point is a matter of harm."

After Zepps pointed to Elijah and Milo Peters, two Czech-born brothers who have performed in gay adult scenes with each other, Bering noted, "The fact that they're violating this... taboo notion of your brother or your sister being completely off-limits from a sexual perspective, I think, attracts... a large contingency of the viewing public."

He added, "It's a carnival-esque affair, but it's actual sexual arousing to us because it probably taps into something, whether we want to admit it or not, deeply unconscious about the possible patterns of attraction to... our relatives."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/09/legalization-incestuous-relationships-_n_5959494.html
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