Should direct relatives be allowed to marry?

[Baine]

No need to get married. A couple can live for life without being married.

[Independent voter]

Wasn't this topic posted about 2 weeks ago?


No, children born of incest have defects, not all of them noticeable like holes in their hearts. Primitive man all over the globe saw that the children of related people were weak and there is a world wide taboo against it.

And the grooming thing were relatives groom young people for sex is creepy af.

[Underverse]

The issue is that none of us are free of problems. A lot of us fortunately never have to deal with them because, and wait for this one, we don't inbreed.

My point is that incest does not always lead to defects. It simply polarizes the incidence of defects because recessive alleles are more likely to line up. The effect of this is increased allele visibility, which under conditions of selection would lead to a purging of deleterious alleles. Those people who are products of incest and do not suffer from defects are less likely to be carriers, and are thus more genetically pure than people who are not products of incest.

[Thrif]

If they accept to sterilize themselves, then I'd say it's fine. Otherwise, no. Relatives procreating is just a plethora of problems for the children.

Ok say through genetic manipulation those can be removed then what?

It's not that simple - the whole reason our reproductive method uses two sexes to begin with is to create genetically differentiated people, because bacteria and virus are constantly trying to kill us and the only reason they don't is because we switch up our genetic blueprint with each generation. So the more diverse our partners are, the better our immune systems will be, and if we as a population accepted inbreeding it'd decrease our fitness overall.

You can actually notice this by smell, often when people are sweaty. People closely related to you will smell pretty bad when they're sweating, to you at least, and people who you'd produce offspring with good immune systems will smell better.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

This is kinda a nasty topic. Never once did I think about banging my brother, mother, or father and thank the maker they didnt think it about me either.

[LiiLoSNK]

I married my brother after divorcing my mom, so now my ex wive's son's husband's brother is actually my brother's mom's husband's brother's mother's son's brother's cousin's dad's sister. Or something like that.

[Deleted]

My point is that incest does not always lead to defects. It simply polarizes the incidence of defects because recessive alleles are more likely to line up. The effect of this is increased allele visibility, which under conditions of selection would lead to a purging of deleterious alleles. Those people who are products of incest and do not suffer from defects are less likely to be carriers, and are thus more genetically pure than people who are not products of incest.

So selective breeding within a family. I mean that's going to be a little hard, something that you could ask the Orthodox Jewish community about, because as they fairly quickly found out when they started doing DNA tests to make sure that their partnering weren't going to be detrimental, they essentially ran out of options real fast, and that was only at a two generation offspring test (cousins), take it to the third level and you'd essentially be completely out of options.

It is theoretically possible, but in practice, we don't exactly have a lot of stories of products of incest going particularly well, and the ones were it is, we aren't talking genetically superior where they outbreed all negative traits, we are talking about being lucky that it didn't spring to life within their time span but that there was a higher risk than the average man.

[Trollokdamus]

Only in a select few countries and only after an in-depth investigation to make sure that no side is forced into it, directly or indirectly. A couple should also be forbidden to have their own children so no lives would be ruined by genetic defects. Adoption all the way.

[Toogoodman]

What the fucking lonely?

[cuafpr]

I think it should be allowed aslong they dont produce offspring so clip the men and its fine, we dont need a second afghanistan.

why just clip the man????

[NicoWolf]

Never thought I'd see an incest support thread here. Guess I shouldn't be surprised.

[shadowmouse]

Without a specific case to refer to I may be missing the point.

Aside from the genetic issues that have already been mentioned, there is probably too much risk of outright grooming and affection through close contact that would amount to the same. We already take steps to prevent relationships where there is the possibility one partner is in a position of power over the other, and while that might not be an issue in every single situation where there is blood kinship -- the risk is there.

I think a side issue is that legalizing marriage between direct relatives could provide an avenue of attack on other laws meant to protect minors from grooming. Example -- I could easily imagine a teacher raising a defense based on "look, a teacher is in far less of a position of authority that a parent, but parents can even marry their children now". I'm not a fan of trying for bright line rules, but this may be one situation where I think it better not to blur the lines.

[Halyon]

Morally? No. Otherwise, I'd say it depends on how close it is...looking at it long-term the first generation of in-breeding isn't going to be a problem, so aside from morally, I see no issue with it, after that though, I'd say no.

I'm not that morally concerned when it comes to these issues, so I'm 70/30 in favor of it. I mean, nobody's gonna be hurt as a result of it, so it's their business. And it being icky to some people doesn't really matter.

[Yvaelle]

I hadn't thought of that specifically but honestly I always snickered at this idea. But this issue is really coming up.

Donald and Ivanka finally tying the knot?

[Halyon]

If they accept to sterilize themselves, then I'd say it's fine. Otherwise, no. Relatives procreating is just a plethora of problems for the children.

Only after a couple of generations, first one is fine, after that my memory's sketchy on it, but it's not as terrible as people commonly believe. So gen 1 incestuous marriages that also procreate are only a moral issue...

[meowfurion]

Lots of mentally fucked up people in this world...and forum.

[Silver Forte]

There is literally no logical reason to marry your relatives.

Chemical attraction.

[Martymark]

I don't care what other people do as long as no one is being victimized. Let them do whatever they want as consenting adults behind closed doors.

[Miyagie]

why just clip the man????

Fast and easy.

[Scooby Dooby Doo]

@ Op if you think that is a good idea take a look at Pakistan and see what kind of uh.... let's call it "behavioral issues" inbreeding causes.