http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6424937.stm

V. interesting - particularly the extract below... which seems a rational if highly contentious point.

Gotta say the argument makes sense. I don't like the idea though. But I'm not sure if I'd say people with hereditary diseases shouldn't have kids either.

I agree 100% with the couple. The only reason incest is wrong is because of religion.

Actually there's a very good biological reason why incest is a bad idea, it's called inbreeding depression.

Still, it's like smoking in my opinion. People know the risks involved, if they want to do it anyway, let them.

Except that in smoking, the smoker is the one who suffers most. And in this situation, it will be the (possible) children.

(BAH, I didn't mean to sound like that horrible "can't someone think of the children?" cliche, but I think I just did. Grumbling is me.)

That being said, I do not have a clear opinion on this yet. I will have to think about it.

I agree with your basic point, but if we start to tell people who they can marry because of the quality of children they may have we'll be getting into pretty dangerous ground.

Smoking and drinking while pregnant can cause damage to possible children as well.

I say love is love, but still, if it's proven that inbreeding is bad on the genes, then I suppose they should think twice before having a kid... For his/her/its sake.

Sanctions against incest are quite simply the only form of negative eugenics available to primitive societies - Which is why it found its way into the morality of most religions. Personally I think it's irresponsible for such a couple to reproduce; but then again, it's also irresponsible for stupid people to reproduce.

And ugly people...

Lets not forget, that there are about 20-30 conditions in which if two people have children together they greatly increase possible problems. I seem to remember in hig school some talk about certain types of blood types not doing well together, and I remember wanting to get blood tested if I ever thought about marriage.

For some reason, now that I am engaged, nobody wants to let me get blood tests until after we are married, which seems really silly to me.

Ummm yeah, not really. But you keep believing that.

I am aware. I did not mean smoking while pregnant, just general smoking... well, and I think Korben did too. Could be wrong though.

California has almost completely outlawed smoking, because of "second hand smoke", and some groups are still trying to make it "Child abuse" to smoke in a car that a child is in.

My favorite part about this is when people used to argue, If you allow gay marriage you will need to allow Incest, the response was always, "How dare you compare gay marriage to incest!".... yet here we are...

"Many criminal law experts say that we are right and I'm confident that my clients will win their case. The law against incest is based on very old moral principles. The law was abolished in France, it's about time it should be scrapped here in Germany as well."

Interesting, didn't know that about France.

Also the couple has 4 children.

Not sure how gay marriage is comparable to incest actually besides both being expressions of love that are frowned upon by certain belief sets. Homosexuality is frowned upon primarily for moral reasons. No extended parties are being harmed due to the relationship. Incest is frowned upon almost universally due to the inbreeding issue and the fact that the children produced are at much greater risks for being "defected". Which as has been pointed out is an unfair standard given that other at risk partners are allowed to have children without anyone batting an eye.

Yet even now, though I logically cannot find any real problem with it, my social conditioning makes me want to just say "ewwww" and recoil in horror at the very idea heh.

Actually, from what I've always heard, its not really that dangerous for a single occurance of incest to happen in a family, its when it happens repeatedly that you start seeing defects. It took centuries of inbreeding to have a dramatic effect on royal families across the globe. So to say they're harming their children isn't totally well-founded.

Plus, are they full siblings or half-siblings? I didn't read the article.

Full siblings. Father died, they were each adopted by different families, and did not meet each other until their mother died and they were in their 20s.

Well, that and genetic diversity issues.