Social taboo
September 25, 2014
Ask your friends and relatives and intuitively most of them will be opposed to lifting punishments for incest. The taboo runs deep. It is rooted in history, experience, religion and tradition - if not in all, then at least in most cultures around the world.
But in nations as different as France, Russia, Turkey, Japan, Argentina, Ivory Coast and The Netherlands, sex between consenting adult siblings is not punished. The reason given: There are no victims.
Eugenics no reason for ban
But, your friends and relatives will cry out, there are potential victims!
The risk that children born from an incestuous relationship will be born physically handicapped is disproportionately high, they'll say. Taking an oversimplified view, that's true - but it's also true for the children of parents with certain hereditary diseases, or alcoholics, or pregnant women who are older than 40. They should all be banned from having sex!
The law isn't even based on eugenic concerns: sterilization doesn't change the statutory offense. The law that the ethics panel would like to see revised allows for all varieties of consensual sex.
Yet, there is a lingering sense that such a change would be wrong. Wouldn't it violate moral values, or even destroy the family? A glance at the other countries - see the list above - and at scientific research puts things right. Doing away with the punishment doesn't mean the taboo disappears. The Westermarck effect - named after Finnish anthropologist Edward Westermarck - prevents siblings from falling in love with each other in droves. You don't find people you were raised with sexually attractive.
Taboo has strong roots
That is why so few cases answer to this part of Germany's criminal code. All available data shows that incest among siblings appears to be relatively rare in Western societies, according to the ethics panel. But the few adult siblings who do have sex have the same basic right to sexual self-determination and to the pursuit of happiness. So, toss the criminal law provision. The taboo will survive!