Still Looking For Reasonable Objections to Freedom

At Women’s Health Frequently Asked Questions, someone asked, “Why Is Incest Considered Immoral In Our Society?”

The person asking the question starts out by making it clear that she is opposed to “it,” whatever “it” is. The assumption is that she’s opposed to everything that falls under the definition of “incest,” even consensual, romantic adults reltationships.

but i just started to think about it, and i couldn’t think of a reason besides, “it just feels wrong.”

Thanks for being honest.

i know there can be genetic abnormalities, but what if both parties are adults and consent, and there was 0% chance of pregnancy? (ex: the woman got a hysterectomy) what if a sister is sexually attracted to her brother? why does society say that’s wrong?

Some people have long tried to control the sexuality and relationships of others, including criminalizing interracial couples, same-sex relationships, sex outside of marriage, and polygamy. This is just part of that.

One comment said…

Incest probably was thought of as wrong because as most culture developed women were thought of a property and so you had owner’s rights involved (like milking a neighbors cow or stealing his eggs and veggies, etc.). this could lead to serious problems among the relationships between the males in a family and in early societies where men were the hunters, they needed to be able to work together.

Not sure where the logic is in that. Marrying within the clan would actually strengthen ties. Maybe the person meant that by having to marry someone from other clans, they formed alliances? Today, society is evolved and we form many alliances without marriage.

In reality, it probably occurs more than is reported and half of the pron industry seems to be devoted to it.

It happens a lot more than we would think based on (non-porn) media.

If both parties are adults and consent, and there are no offspring and it does not disrupt the family unit then it becomes a matter of personal choice.

Again with the denial of reproductive rights. The flimsy “birth defect” card is played by another person…

Well, it does create hardships for the children that are born because they are so closely related that they will have deformed features.

Most children born to such relationships do not have deformities.

Also speaking in a more spiritual way, I guess you can say we are already related to our family in a certain way, and turning that relationship into something else would be just wrong.

I can understand this point. However, we have any number of different kinds of relationships that we might transform into sexual or marital, including friendships, professional, and so on. There are some people who will not date coworkers. But we don't say it should be illegal to do that. Why deny people the freedom to make that transformation or addition in this case?

We are supposed to find someone outside our family who we dont already have a special family connection to, to marry.

Isn’t that exactly the question being asked? Restating the question is not an answer.

Again, consenting adults should have their right to sex, love, and marriage, regardless of birth, especially if nobody can give a good reason to give those rights to one group of consenting adults, but not others.