The reason I’m writing about incest is because of two books I recently read that involved this issue. In one, (The Good Daughter, by Joyce Maynard), a brother and sister who are separated at birth fall in love and engage in a sexual relationship (they intend to marry and have a baby), when they discover that they are in fact brother and sister and they separate and abort the baby. There is a lot of shame and pain involved in this story and the way the characters feel towards each other. They never actually talk again, and for both of them – it is a relief.
There are real life cases like that one, though such couples should get counseling that helps them to get past the irrational shame so they can be together. They should also get legal representation so that they can avoid absurd laws.
I know that incest is something not simply frowned upon, but considered taboo in many, if not most, societies. My question is: why?
Besides the issue of inbreeding and increased possibility of birth defects (another excerpt from Wikipedia is below), what else is fundamentally wrong about related persons having a romantic relationship?
There isn’t anything wrong.
I am in no way saying that it would be a good thing to promote incestual relationships (and there are many instances of nonconsensual incestuous relationships that occur in the form of sexual abuse), but the story that I mentioned above between the brother and sister who did not know they were related, felt sad to me. It felt like they were giving up on a relationship and a life because they felt they did something terribly wrong and horrible. And I don’t know that they did.
They didn’t do anything wrong. Laws and taboos against consensual adult incest, like current laws and policies that discourage or treat with inequality same-sex relationships and polyamorous relationships are vestiges of a time when a handful of people tried to control the sexuality of others. Time, and progress, march on. If more people were to think this through, especially if they were aware of people they know being involved with a close relative, they would see that there's nothing wrong.
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