Are there moral objections to incest?

[Charles Finley]

Don't get me wrong, I find incest gross. However, I also find the idea of homosexual sex gross, but I wouldn't verbally attack anyone for advocating or asking about it on this forum, which seems to happen whenever anyone asks about incest.

So my question is this: is there anything morally wrong with incest, assuming the relationship is neither pedophilic nor coerced? Saying "it's just gross" doesn't cut it. I'm not wondering whether the idea appeals to you or not, I'm asking if there are any moral objections to it. If you can't find one, kindly stop jumping down the throats of those who are into it, just as you wouldn't verbally abuse any gays on the forum.

[Taryn98]

It's illegal for one, second I find it morally disturbing and third, genetically it's bad for society.

[Charles Finley]

It's illegal for one, second I find it morally disturbing and third, genetically it's bad for society.

Illegality is not a moral objection. You don't find it "morally disturbing," it offends your sensibilities. There's a difference. Your third example is not only untrue except in cases of repeated inbreeding, it also applies only to reproducing incestuously, which wasn't what my question was about.

[StoppingTime]

Puberty :arrow: Ramblings of the Wise.

side note: Everyone's moral thoughts and ideas are different, and you really can't argue/prove morals. So what'a the point of this?

[WickedWeekend]

This gets my gears turning, because at first you would think "it's just wrong." But let's think. I remember distinctly a group of Kentuckians in the backwoods would repeatedly inbreed with their cousins. Their offspring would often come out mutated and messed up. Second of all, who are you to compare incest to homosexuality? They are not the same. Get it right. It's also illegal. Just as people advocate doing illegal drugs on here and we "jump down their throats," we do the same for people who promote incest. You're double standarding, man.

[Taryn98]

It frightens me that this is the first topic you want to discuss after joining here.
And please don't tell me what I find morally disturbing or not. You don't know what I feel.

[Sir Suomi]

Incest can cause emotional destress between the siblings, and like others have said, it can produce mutated offspring, which can be very dangerous for the baby. Also, it could tear families apart if a family member found out. I THINK you can't argue with that.

[FreeFall]

Two consenting adults can have sex with whomever they please so long as all parties are in agreement.

I personally find it disgusting that people can't even go out in the world to find someone to have sex with. Like really, it's so hard for you to find another person of non-relation but you've got to go sex up you brother, your mom's crotch-fruit? Just because you came out of the same womb doesn't mean you need to share your own DNA. Or a cousin, crotch-fruit of your dad/mom's sibling. Or your parent! They made you, you don't need to make-out with them. Little Jerry in Chem class is pretty into you, if you're so desperate try him.

When I think of my sister, I think of my parents having sex to make her.
I don't and cannot see her as a live sex doll or anything but an irritating brat.

[Syvelocin]

Lol, I guess I'm going to be the first one in the opposite faction then?

I'm a super accepting person. Like, I know I probably shouldn't think a lot of what I think, but it's just my nature. I know I'm sometimes way too lenient. I think it's the fanfiction I read. Ahem. But anyway.

I just... can't feel what other people feel for this subject. I really don't get the resentment. I understand resenting breeding with family, of course, but being with someone you love (in an obviously non-family way)?

Parent and child is strictly against my morals, don't get me wrong. Most relationships between generations as well. Depends on what kind of age difference there is. Oh look at me, in an incest thread, talking about age difference. But I DO have a reason for that. As the older and more responsible one, you should be setting an example. You should be a safety net that child knows will catch him. It's simply irresponsible to pull the foundation that child needs from you out from under him. Whether he's a minor or not, he needs a guardian, an important figure in his life. It'll just mess him up in unnecessary ways to have a sexual relationship with him. If he's too young to understand this, you've just wrecked his safety net. He may be embarrassed, uncomfortable, even scared. If things go wrong, you will ruin your relationship with him forever. I just don't think in this situation it's worth the risk. And I can't imagine being a mum and feeling that way for your child. Aunt or uncle is creepy in the same way, but I honestly have less against it.

I can't honestly see myself as someone who'd partake in that, but hey, have you ever thought about it? Should soul mates exist (which they don't, don't say I'm saying they do), what if you were super unlucky and the person who was supposed to be your romantic soul mate was born your cousin? If you truly belonged with that person... forget the birth defects, you would have a donor or adopt or something if you wanted kids. They loved you and you loved them and you only wanted to be with them. You'd seriously just overlook it? I don't think I could do that.

I'm on the fence about you mentioning homosexuality. I mean, in its most basic form, I guess that's exactly what the matter is: being with who you love. Minus what I mentioned about the parent/child, I think I can tolerate the comment. :P Have you ever seen gay porn? It's hot.

[Charles Finley]

First, for those of you who don't have a brain in your heads, illegal does NOT equal immoral. Let me make that perfectly clear. If you want to argue that incest is immoral, put on your big girl panties and actually MAKE AN ARGUMENT. Don't just say that it's illegal, because plenty of immoral things have been legal in the past, and plenty of moral things have been illegal.

Second, I really don't care if you think it's gross. I think it's gross as all get out. I also think male homosexual activity is gross, but that does not make it immoral.

Third, if you say it's immoral to have children from an incestuous relationship, would you also be in favor of banning people with serious inheritable diseases from reproducing?

Fourth, I am not promoting incest, any more than I would be promoting homosexuality by telling bigots to stop persecuting homosexuals.

Finally, as long as no coercion, pedophilia, or any other factors that normally contribute to a rape charge are involved, why do you give a damn what two consenting people do in the privacy of their bedrooms?

[FreeFall]

We all have different views on this and we've all given explanations as to why it's immoral to us. You just don't accept that because it doesn't match your own standards for you own code of morality. So it can't make sense to you to feel it like others do.

To me it's immoral and both gross because you're pretty much waiting for your mom to give birth to your wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend. Your her crotch-fruit, waiting for a fellow crotch-fruit. Or you're waiting for you son/daughter to be born so you can share a bed with them too. We're not pharaohs, we don't need to wait to have a lover made.

It's illegal and to some breaking the law is the same as immorality. That is their standards, it is justifiable to them and they've every right to follow with that.
So why call them stupid when their standards aren't applicable to you?

You've your own standards for immorality and morals, we have our own. You're not going to get an answer you seek right off of the bat, but you may get one that you agree with while another finds it ridiculous.


To answer the disability, no but I'm in favor of termination. I say a mandatory screening is in order, to see if the child has it/will have it/does not have it. It's not fair to extend such an awful disability to them when it can be avoided, that's pretty much stealing away a life already to be aware and knowing how much they'll struggle. The mast famous case of dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, pretty much living in painful hell with skin that's always falling off exposing many wounds, Johny Kennedy wished he'd been aborted, that no one should ever be born like that. Treacher Collins syndrome, not all cases are bad so this is iffy and can be given much leeway but if you google it you'll see. We're not in a place in the world where these people with the severe cases that managed to survive, will have an independently easy or peaceful life.

As for your last point, I answered that already but I'll say it again. I do not care what consenting adult do.

[berns.pdf]

Puberty :arrow: Ramblings of the Wise.

side note: Everyone's moral thoughts and ideas are different, and you really can't argue/prove morals. So what'a the point of this?

If only we based our morals on facts instead of fairy tales, they would be debatable.

I feel that the only thing truly wrong with incest is the resulting inferior offspring if heterosexual incestuous sex is done unprotected. That means homosexual incest is completely tolerable in my standards.

When you think about it, the only thing that makes the word "fuck" offensive or evil is that our culture dictates it is an incredibly negative word. But when we look at it from a purely objective point of view, it's just another word - a collection of vowels and consonants.

Incestuous relationship is just love. The only negativity that could possibly result from it is that their offspring is doomed to be inferior. But even that has an upcoming biotechnological solution coming not too long from now.

Don't even let me get into why pedophilia is intolerable and incest is not.

[TigerBoy]

I have no problems with any consensual sexual relationship in principle. In practice I only object to incest on the basis of genetic hazard and impact on society (burden of care).

Most laws on sexual activity are based on local taboos, and vary greatly between societies (and over history). It seems to me that those who make the most noise about taboos being broken are usually selling newspapers, pushing religion or politics, or just getting cheap thrills.

[Jean Poutine]

>does not get that "morally wrong" is a subjective concept belonging to an entire society
>also does not get that morality evolves with time
>cannot fathom the idea that something can be morally wrong simply because it shocks the collective unconscious and insists on finding an objective justification to a subjective criterion

By the way, that last part, "attemping to find an objective justification to a subjective criterion", in law, that's called being completely out of left field, to not use stronger terms (I burst my potty mouth index when somebody here said "I believe every word in the Bible). Oh, fuck it, that's called being retarded.

Homosexuality was immoral at one point, but it's not anymore, and it's a grave error to compare incest with being gay because you are attempting to go back in time and say "see, homosexuality was never immoral, just the old times were fucked up, and incest can be like that too". But no, it was at one point in time, because morality is entirely subjective and changes with society. Society then wasn't society now, they are two different beasts with two different value sets. For now, incest is wrong because the collective spirit of society is shocked at such an idea. Maybe one day it'll change, but stop these dumb topics - first murder and now this.

[TheBigUnit]

It frightens me that this is the first topic you want to discuss after joining here.
And please don't tell me what I find morally disturbing or not. You don't know what I feel.

yea shes rite....

incest is wrong in all standards even most animals know that incest is wrong and when populations decline and animals r forced to have incest their populations plummets even more, we re not genetically made for incest and it is flat out wrong

[Gigablue]

Everyone seems to be saying that incest causes genetic problems for the child, but this isn't true in most cases. The reasons that incest increases the risk of genetic diseases is that if someone is a carrier of a disease, their close relatives are more likely to also be carriers. Their children would have a greater, albeit small, chance of getting two copies of the gene that causes the disease.

Incest can also be problematic if it occurs frequently in an isolated population over generations. This causes a loss of genetic diversity and some deleterious traits increase in frequency due to random genetic drift. This can mean that this group will become highly predisposed to a certain disease.

I don't think incest really hurts people if its consensual, and there isn't a dependency between the two people. I don't like it and I find it rather gross, but that doesn't mean it's wrong, just that I don't like it.

[Texas warrior]

I think objectivity, no it is not wrong. While there are some subjective reasons to think it's wrong, I think that most of the people that read the question didn't understand the differences between the two.

[Charles Finley]

Homosexuality was immoral at one point, but it's not anymore, and it's a grave error to compare incest with being gay because you are attempting to go back in time and say "see, homosexuality was never immoral, just the old times were fucked up, and incest can be like that too". But no, it was at one point in time, because morality is entirely subjective and changes with society. Society then wasn't society now, they are two different beasts with two different value sets. For now, incest is wrong because the collective spirit of society is shocked at such an idea. Maybe one day it'll change, but stop these dumb topics - first murder and now this.
It should have been obvious that I was referring to normative and naturalistic morals, such as those suggested by Hume, precisely BECAUSE descriptive morals can never be regarded as absolute or constant, and as such should only be used as a guideline to behavior when they do not conflict with morals that have basis in the concept of natural rights or compassion (Schopenhauer) rather than "what society likes."

To be a little more clear, the reason it should have been obvious that I was referring to normative morals rather than descriptive ones is that it is ABUNDANTLY clear that society abhors incest, just as society abhors polygamy, just as society abhorred homosexuality. Were we to build on the foundation of descriptive morals, we would be laying our verbal brick and mortar on a foundation wholly unsuited for discussing such topics as sexuality, race relations, and even gender roles, because society has a horrible track record in those areas. Hell, slavery used to be not only morally acceptable but a moral duty, according to society. Let us please proceed as if logic and reason were more important than what twenty million suburban families think about how others live their lives.
When you think about it, the only thing that makes the word "fuck" offensive or evil is that our culture dictates it is an incredibly negative word. But when we look at it from a purely objective point of view, it's just another word - a collection of vowels and consonants.

Incestuous relationship is just love. The only negativity that could possibly result from it is that their offspring is doomed to be inferior. But even that has an upcoming biotechnological solution coming not too long from now.

Don't even let me get into why pedophilia is intolerable and incest is not.
Pedophilia is intolerable to most (myself included) because there is ALWAYS a power dynamic that favors the older gentleman, and imbalanced power dynamics do horrible things to one's ability to moderate the sexual activity in a relationship.
We all have different views on this and we've all given explanations as to why it's immoral to us. You just don't accept that because it doesn't match your own standards for you own code of morality. So it can't make sense to you to feel it like others do.

I should have been more clear, and I apologize. You have, technically, given moral reasons for why incest is wrong, in the sense that morality can be subjective. However, what you haven't done is explain why your morals are RIGHT.

Let me elaborate. If I came on this forum and attacked homosexuals for being sinners, told them they would rot in hell, and generally acted the jerk towards them, I would be ridiculed, insulted, and possibly banned, and rightly so. This despite the fact that those actions would be perfectly moral, and homosexuality perfectly immoral, according to my own hypothetical moral code. So, that being said, explain to me why incest is immoral, without making reference to the non-argument, "it just is." And before you tell me again that morals are subjective, I will remind you that some of the greatest names in history became famous due to their moral arguments, and not one of those arguments was, "morality is, like, subjective and stuff, so let's stop it gaiz."

It's illegal and to some breaking the law is the same as immorality. That is their standards, it is justifiable to them and they've every right to follow with that.
So why call them stupid when their standards aren't applicable to you?
Because following their standards which are reducible to nothing more than "I feel this because that's just how I feel," that never make reference to basic or natural rights, leads them to attack, insult, ostracize, berate, abuse, and just generally be incredibly offensive towards those who have an incest fetish or even those who just regard it as being no more morally wrong than any other kind of sexual activity. That's what's stupid. They think it's acceptable to express that level of vitriol towards others with NOTHING TO BACK IT UP.

[FreeFall]

I cannot answer your question with an answer you'll find acceptable, I don't have one. But here's a feeble attempt of my point of view;

I believe people have the right to love whomever they so please, as long as all parties are totally understanding each other, consenting, and are in agreement.

I feel incest in wrong, against my morals for my own reasoning as stated, so I will never do it.

But I will never go and berate those that partake in it unless they're boasting about how they just raped their brother last night and he's avoiding them. If they come and ask what my opinion is on them sleeping with their father, I will answer it truthfully. But I will not tell them to stop unless they're harming themselves, I will not tell them they're going to rot in hell, my life objectives have no place to be pushed on another.

I place my morals on myself. I hold myself to my own morals and life values, not others. I don't give a damn what others do so long as it's not affecting me or children.

There's no global consensus on morality. Never has been, never will be.

[Human]

Don't see a big problem with it to be honest. ESPECIALLY when no babies are made, or when it's between cousins.

[Twilly F. Sniper]

Don't get me wrong, I find incest gross. However, I also find the idea of homosexual sex gross, but I wouldn't verbally attack anyone for advocating or asking about it on this forum, which seems to happen whenever anyone asks about incest.

So my question is this: is there anything morally wrong with incest, assuming the relationship is neither pedophilic nor coerced? Saying "it's just gross" doesn't cut it. I'm not wondering whether the idea appeals to you or not, I'm asking if there are any moral objections to it. If you can't find one, kindly stop jumping down the throats of those who are into it, just as you wouldn't verbally abuse any gays on the forum.

Incest is just plain immoral to the core. Homosexuality on the other hand, shouldnt affect morals at all. Its dumb that it does. I would be kinda immoral if that was so.

[Charles Finley]

Incest is just plain immoral to the core. Homosexuality on the other hand, shouldnt affect morals at all. Its dumb that it does. I would be kinda immoral if that was so.

Finally! A well-reasoned, well-informed, well-supported opinion. I love it when people back up claims even without being asked in the original post to be prepared to actually support their claims!


... Oh, wait. That's not what happened here at all.

Nothing at all? Wow. It's almost like most objections to incestuous behavior boil down to "I just think it's icky."

Please don't double post, use the edit button instead. ~TheMatrix