A
female
age
30-35,
anonymous
writes:This is an unusual question, but I'm curious to see what your answers will be. I was watching the HBO show Game of Thrones the other day, in which it is hinted at that one of the characters is having sex with his sister. On IMDB, this brought up a whole discussion about whether incest is wrong or not. (for those interested, here's the link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944947/board/thread/181441429?p=1)I'm vehemently against it, because children born from it are often severely handicapped. Also the idea of having sex with a sibling repulses me. Ofcourse this also has to do with the way I was raised and I wonder if I would still be so opposed to it if that view hadn't been imposed on me from the moment I was born.It seems a lot of people are for it, as long as it's between two consenting adults and no children are born because of it. They also argue that it will become acceptable in the future, because it was in the past. Aside from the fact it is illegal, what do you think? Please keep in mind I'm not insinuating anything, just curious about the views here, especially because the average poster here is more intelligent than many on IMDB combined. Or so it seems, anyway. SO, is incest going to be socially accepted in the future, like homosexuality, or do you think these two things are incomparable? Are people defending incest insane/creepy, or do they have a point?
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female
reader, red_squirrel  +, writes (26 April 2011):
I think for a lot of people it's about the safety of the family unit. If I found out my brother or father were thinking of me sexually, it would actually destroy me.
Evidence of this can, I think, be seen in contrasting ones emotional reactions to the following two scenarios:
1. A brother and sister, who were lost to each other at birth, meet and fall in love. Then they realise their relation to each other, and because of it decide never to have children.
-OR-
2. A boy and girl are adopted into the same family from different ones. They are raised as siblings their entire life, and then in their early 20s fall in love and decide to get married.
I know which one gives me the "ew" feeling...
A
reader, anonymous, writes (24 April 2011): This is verified as being by the original poster of the questionThanks for the answers so far! They make interesting reading. Thank you Cerberus Raphael (and others) for providing more insight on the issue. I can see now that it's not just upbringing that made my view on it the way it is.
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female
reader, Abella +, writes (24 April 2011):
 it has been alleged that ancient egyptian rulers did this,Leading to issue with mis shaped elongated heads and various other deformitiesincest is a hideous perversion
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male
reader, Cerberus_Raphael  +, writes (24 April 2011):
 Historically it was only acceptable because it was a necessity. In times of near-extinction a race will turn to inbreeding to further expand their population and over time as more and more of that species appear, bloodlines will become more separate, hence the differences in abilities and skills of different families or races in human beings or the whole reason why you can trace chimpanzees and humans back to the same general ancient species of mesozoic mammal. Incest is no longer required in the slightest, therefore, we are repulsed by it and with good reason for to commit such an act would be damaging to future generations and nature is all about improvement and progression.
In terms of marriage, let them do what they will, if they really love each other, who are we to tell them not to but if they were to commit sexual acts, it would be dangerous and terrible. Another problem is that there isn't always the consent of parents or other family members. Even non-related people run from families, encouraged to follow their own hearts and be with the ones they love so why would related family members feel any differently but such relationships only complicate things in the family. I imagine there would be much awkwardness and even hostility.
Even less-complex creatures that have evolved from our common mammalian ancestor, show traits that often lead them away from incest, there are only a few exceptions but those creatures can barely climb that evolutionary ladder. Incest is and perhaps always will be a problem.
Homosexuality will become acceptable because there really is nothing wrong with it, it does not become a problem for anyone, no harm is born of it save for those who are extremely against it and even then, their reasons for bearing hatred towards them are ill-conceived and ignorant, other family members against incest are against it with good reason. Unlike all other views, repulsion toward incest isn't something you are simply brought up with.
I think some people who defend the act of incest are somewhat deranged in some manner, some of them defend it just for the sake of defending something different.
I hope that helps.
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female
reader, DanceInTheDark  +, writes (24 April 2011):
 I believe that nature takes care of it's self. If Incest was alright, I think more people would be attracted to their siblings.
But people aren't usually attracted to siblings, siblings have children together usually causes birth defects. Nature would know this, so honestly, I think people involved in incest have something wrong mentally.
It's just not natural, we're all biologically designed to carry on the human race, that is really our only purpose.
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female
reader, TasteofIndia +, writes (24 April 2011):
 I think that you are thinking like the rest of us. At first it's like "EWWWW", but is that due to a social stigma of modern society? Certainly back in the day in some historical periods incest wasn't terribly unusual. Honestly, I guess if two siblings want to get married and opt out of children (or adopt, or surrogate), I say let them. There marriage wouldn't hurt me or effect my life, though I may feel uneasy about it myself.
While I don't want to say that GLBT marriage is like incest, I suppose that socially for some people it does seem induce similar reactions. And who are we to say who is allowed and who isn't allowed to fall in love? That, at least is my two cents on the issue. Cool question, way to give us Cupiders something new to think about!
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male
reader, anonymous, writes (23 April 2011): I'll talk about these very interesting concepts from a mostly genetic or a "survival of the blood line" point of view. Think of how the Cro Magnon may have been effected by these, for example.Combining your genes with those of an immediate family member often leads to deleterious (harmful) genes becoming active; those harmful genes can cause serious health problems and profoundly affect the ability of that individual to procreate (have healthy babies that live). This is true for most higher order animals, including humans. If you don't have healthy babies that live, eventually your species goes extinct. As such, natural selection has selected for individuals who find the act of incest repulsive, so as to avoid harmful genetic mutations, because those who do not engage in incest have more healthy babies that live, who then are also likely to be repulsed by incest, and go on to have healthy babies, etc. The feeling of repulsion is beneficial to the longevity of the individual's blood-line, so it is biologically beneficial to be repulsed by incest.As such, no, it will never be widely accepted in mainstream society.Whereas homosexuality, on the other hand, has been shown in various anthropological studies to have numerous beneficial effects to the community and to the family, and does not result in deleterious gene mutations that can negatively affect the bloodline. Therefore, homosexuality can and should be socially accepted as being beneficial.
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female
reader, anonymous, writes (23 April 2011): I'm currently reading a book called, "Ada" by Vladimir Nabokov. Basically, these siblings have been tricked into thinking they're cousins (which was acceptable then) and have fallen in love. They find out that they are siblings, though, and cannot stop loving eachother. It's actually a really great book. Very lovely.
If They bare no children, I see absolutely no harm in it. It is somewhat like a homosexual relationship. It isn't wrong if you're in love.
In some cases, incest is just very messed up. Such as a father and his daughter. But in some cases, I see little wrong with it.
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female
reader, lacrymosa_652 +, writes (23 April 2011):
 I'm against incest purely because I think it's unfair on any child born from the relationship, as there's a high risk of physical and/or mental handicaps, as you said.Other than that, I can't think of any reason as to why I'm against it. There probably is just a social stigma... you know, because it seems weird but you can't really say why. I'm sure other people will come up with some interesting arguments, so I'll put this question on my watched list :)I don't think incest will ever be legal, because how can a brother and sister have a sexual relationship and be certain that they won't conceive a child, as contraception is never 100% failsafe? While homosexuality was perceived as unnatural in the past [and still by some people today] it was never hurting anyone, not like incest could be hurting someone who never initiated it [the child]. I don't think people defending incest are creepy, they just think outside of the box and look beyond the "norm" and society's values.
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reader, anonymous, writes (23 April 2011): I don't think it will ever be socially accepted, especially in closely related relatives such as brother and sister.In most cases where there's two consenting adults, it's usually involving a parent/child or sister/brother who have been separated at birth and then finally meet up. As the person hasn't been raised by or around them the brain doesn't fully recognise them as a parent or sibling but someone who is genetically similar to themselves which has been theorized to increase attraction. It's also been theorized that the brain can and does prevent attraction between parents/children and siblings when brought up by or raised together. It probably does this because if people do inbreed for a couple of generations there will be severe birth defects. It's why most people feel repulsed at even the idea. Do you remember being sat down as child and told it was wrong? Or hearing your family/friends talk about it negatively overly frequently?In the past I suspect it was a case of keeping any power/money in the family and maybe even to strengthen relations. It may have been accepted but marriages were also arranged back then. It's doubtful whether it was anything to do with attraction, which most relationships are initially formed from these days in the developed world. As most people are raised with their own parent or siblings even if they don't live together, I doubt very few will ever feel attraction for their own family. The people who do will be in a very small minority, far smaller than homosexuality so that's one of the reasons why I doubt it will ever be accepted.As for whether it's right or wrong, overall I'd say I'm against it. Anyone who does have a willing relationship with a family member should be counselled, especially if they've been separated for many years. But two people who do love each other, can't help it and won't have children? I don't know. If I'm honest I can't get over my own repulsion at the idea so I'd have to be against it.
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reader, Patriot +, writes (23 April 2011):
Incest is harmful because historically it has not been practiced. So, human populations have considerable genetic load. Deleterious alleles can hide behind good genes and almost never cause problems, simply because it is so unlikely to find another carrier. Plants, on the other hand, which undergo selfing (they have sex with themselves), would have absolutely no problems with incest.
I think that cousin marriages aren't really too big a problem. Brother-sister marriages are a lot more likely to cause problems. I certainly would not recommend this. But, of course, it's better to marry your brother who is a good man rather than some exotic serial killer, if those were your only two options.
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