Why is incest so taboo?

Assuming all child protection laws are still adhered to etc... I personally cant find a problem with incestuous relationships between two consenting adults as long as biological offspring are not produced. Right now thats the only side of the argument that is logical to me.

Not that it doesnt gross me out to a massive extent.

What if the answer to that question is no?

Yes, it is natural for people to be attracted to the same sex... It's just a known fact. It's always happened throughout history, and it's causes no problems to anyone.

When I say it's unnatural for close family relations to be attracted to one another, I don't mean I THINK it's unnatural, I mean it is. That's why most of us aren't attracted to our family memebers in that way, it's natures way of controlling it. I have never been attracted to a family member... and I was starting to feel "that way" in general long before I knew what "incest" was, and that it was illegal.

The risks of a 40 year old woman having pregnancy complications are a lot lower than the bad risks within incest. It's not very comparable.
It's still natural for a woman to have children until the point that she has menopause (which is natures way of stopping it because it would cause problems).

I really don't want to talk in-depth about my personal opinions anymore though... I came to give my opinion like everyone else, but I didn't want a long discussion.

If having sex in public places is acceptable, if having one night stands isn't frowned upon and if interracial relationships are acceptable these days then why hasn't society learnt to accept that incest does happen and will continue happening? Why is it such a taboo topic?

Sounds like someone wants to legitimise banging their sister.

It's taboo because you don't FANCY siblings or parents because it is not natural, it would mess with the gene pool and the potential for unhealthy children.
One night stands have no potential for this and neither do interracial relationships because you are exploring the gene pool so to speak.

The same could be said about incest (without children).

Incest (first-cousin marriage especially) has happened throughout history too, and still does happen. And if children aren't involved, that doesn't cause problems to anyone either.



And the same thing could be said about homosexuality too. Most of us aren't attracted to the same gender in that way either.

I started noticing that I was only ever attracted to girls and not to boys long before I knew what homosexuality was.



This is not true.
"In April 2002, the Journal of Genetic Counseling released a report which estimated the average risk of birth defects in a child born of first cousins at 1.7–2.8% over an average base risk for non-cousin couples of 3%, or about the same as that of any woman over age 40."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/theres-nothing-wrong-with-cousins-getting-married-scientists-say-1210072.html



Fair enough. I was just wondering if you had really thought this all through before forming these opinions, and whether you had based these opinions on consistent, logical arguments rather than on emotion or the instinct that incest is "yucky".

I agree with you but what happens if the the birth control fails, or if they drunkenly have sex or whatever... would it be justified of the state to a force an abortion on them?

That's a good point. But surely there are some cases in which, regardles of birth control, it isn't even possible to have children?
For example the couple may be gay. Or they might be infertile. They might already be too old to have children. They might have had a hysterectomy or vasectomy.

I agree that condoms etc. are not enough to guarantee that no children will be produced in an incestuous relationship, but there are other ways of doing this.

Maybe it's just me but I don't know why the answer would ever be no :L

It's not about incest being "yucky". Clearly I just view things differently to you.

I'm not talking just about 1st cousins...
There are a lot more gay people than those attracted to close family members... It's very common. Incest isn't, not even close in comparison.

But clearly, we have different views, and I'd rather not discuss it much further (I supposed to be doing my essay, and am easily distracted lol).

Well, maybe because some people aren't repulsed by the thought. Pretty simple really.



How do you know this?
- Homosexuality is not illegal - incest is illegal, thus there are more 'out' homosexuals then there are people who are attracted to their family.
-A homosexual will most likely not be shunned by his family if he came out, where as someone who is into incest would be.
-Homosexuals have more choice of partner as there are hundreds of millions of homosexuals. Nobody has hundreds of millions of family members.
-Incest can just be sex. It doesn't have to affect who you marry, and really doesn't have to involve anyone but the people involved. Homosexuality isn't just sex. Not saying you cant have a ****buddy if you're gay, but chances are you aren't going to marry a member oof the sane sex and so people are going to know at some point. As mentioned before, noone need ever know about 'just sex' bar the people involved.

^^ Read what I put, I don't want further discussion. Find someone else to annoy.

Not really about annoying anybody, just about getting my point across. You didn't have to bother replying..

Those saying incest is genetically bad full stop need to go to uni and do a biology related course. What they don't teach you in GCSE's/whatever is that is equally possible to pass down recessive non-lethal genes that are actually beneficial although not many exist.

Obviously siblings mating is quite bad, but after a generation or so a Hardy-weinburg equilibrium is established and its basically like mating with anothe member of the general public.
If I was wrong tribes would not survive due to inbreeding, but they do.

On a side note...barely passing 1st exams in a few weeks ftw!

Or, you could have read what I said on more than one post about not wanting to talk anymore, and actually respected that.
I'm going to stop following this thread, again. Please don't send me something else.

It's not about incest being "yucky". Clearly I just view things differently to you.

I'm not talking just about 1st cousins...
There are a lot more gay people than those attracted to close family members... It's very common. Incest isn't, not even close in comparison.

What do you think? And what if an incestuous couple stand up one day and say "actually, it's my body, and I want to have a child. Disabled people can, criminals can, why shouldn't I?". Could the state lock them up to stop them from having sex? How would it work?

It's not common = so therefore wrong. Good argument

Just admit that you feel this way because you are prejudiced. You have no rational reason for it, and you cannot explain why or how you feel this way.

The quicker people recognise and accept they have prejudices, the world would be a better place.