Incest?

[angielah]

I watched the japanese Anime Koi Kaze yesterday. It's was about two siblings with un-sibling love for each other, and it got me thinking about how incest is viewed nowaday. It's taboo, but I can't think of a single reason why it would be morally wrong (other than that it have a higher chance of producing mentally retarded babies), much to my

Comments

[summonillusion]

I have fairly liberal views on incest, personally...I think the psychological issues and physical issues should be viewed separately, for starters. after all, all the arguments that have to do with reproductive problems are just as applicable to those people who have illnesses prominently running in their family, for example - the moral issue of whether they should reproduce, and even date, is the same (which is why reproductive issues I see as simply that, and being irrelevant to whether the people should date or not, but relevant to whether they should reproduce or not). the psychological is more difficult but I mailny see it as a problem with bigger age gaps and at a younger age, and furthermore, if one person is in the position of authority over the other - close siblings in particular, I have a hard time viewing it really as wrong. the other issue that comes up is really, whether there should be sexual relevancy in the family unit - of course, the family unit is inherently sexual because of the fact that the parents have sex to create a baby, besides adoption, but even then you may notice that generally it is required that there is a sexual relevancy to the love between the two people that form the head of the family unit. I think this is some sort of evolution that happened in the standards of a family model...the focus of the family switched from the children to sexual monogamy. the way I see it, sexual monogamy was relevant to the marriage because without it there would be the consequence of babies born in multiple families, which spreads out the support too thin - I think this is also why, for example, in greek societies, the homosexual love was not viewed in the same way, and not threatening like that of sleeping with someone of the opposite gender outside of marriage, because the consequence of producing children isn't there. I find this especially important to consider now that we have contraception - it's interesting that we don't think much about certain traditions updated even though we do for others, for example, the tradition of sex after marriage is dissolving because it is possible to have sex with someone of the opposite gender without the consequence of producing children because of contraception. I think it's important to have a place that people have which they are not expected anythign sexually - I view sexual love as generally not more legitimate than platonic love though...I think the fulfillment that most people consider only in sexual relationships I consider it to also be potential in platonic relationships - so isn't really relevant to that kind of love...the sexual is just a drug, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but I don't think it should be made synonymous with some kind of "higher love" (which perhaps, was originally referring to the love that surmounts when one survives the hardship of raising children successfully).