Incest Thread Participants

828 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by kama'aina mama, Mar 12, 2007

umsami

Discussion Starter · Mar 12, 2007

Rather than post to that thread... and bring it back from the dead... I thought some of you may find this article from the BBC interesting... tells more about the history of incest as well as some issues that exist in countries where incest laws have been abolished (such as paternity.)

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6424337.stm

I don't want to reopen the debate, though.

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kama'aina mama

· #2 · Mar 12, 2007

Kind of interesting that the experts are divided on some of the same points we were here.

I will say that they are not really quite accurate in their statement about the circumstances under which first cousins can marry in the USA, so I wonder about other things based on that.

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merpk

· #3 · Mar 12, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by kama'aina mama

I will say that they are not really quite accurate in their statement about the circumstances under which first cousins can marry in the USA, so I wonder about other things based on that.

I hadn't realized there were any restrictions on first cousins marrying. My maternal grandparents were first cousins. And when my grandma passed, my grandpa married a different first cousin (also first cousin to first grandma ...) Which is all fodder for my dad's "what a crazy family I married into" jokes, but other than that ...

It's not that uncommon in the Jewish community.

You know, there's the issue, also, of children of sperm donors and the like not knowing they're related ... ever. Like that town somewhere in ?the Midwest I think it was, where a fertility doctor was convicted of using his own sperm in hundreds of his clients' inseminations ... and he apparently has dozens of children within a several-county-wide radius, none of whom know they're related ...

... how is anyone to know??????

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alegna

· #4 · Mar 12, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by merpk

You know, there's the issue, also, of children of sperm donors and the like not knowing they're related ... ever. Like that town somewhere in ?the Midwest I think it was, where a fertility doctor was convicted of using his own sperm in hundreds of his clients' inseminations ... and he apparently has dozens of children within a several-county-wide radius, none of whom know they're related ...

... how is anyone to know??????

Yeah. If we really want to make sure incest isn't happening, we're going to need to require DNA for a marriage license.

-Angela

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kama'aina mama

· #5 · Mar 12, 2007

It is not legal in all states for first cousins to marry, though it is legal in many. Some states have specific requirements. In California you have to see a doctor and get genetic counseling to be certain that you understand the potential risks. But you do not have to be "past childbearing age" as teh article states. In fact I don't think that's true in any state that I have heard about, so I wonder where they got that.

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Arduinna

· #6 · Mar 12, 2007

Interesting article, finally I know the ages of the German couple, since I quit reading that thread fairly early and both ages weren't given in the links I had read.

Anyway, dh parents are first cousins but they did not grow up together and IIRC they didn't marry in the US although I'd have to double check that.

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kama'aina mama

· #7 · Mar 12, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by merpk

You know, there's the issue, also, of children of sperm donors and the like not knowing they're related ... ever.

That is one aspect of assisted fertility that has always gnawed at the back of my mind. I have a friend who was adopted who is convinced that the primary reason she was almost exclusively attracted to men of other races was a nagging dread of un-intentionally becoming intimate with a blood relative.

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