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Originally Posted by adysav
I'm pretty sure that 'astronomical' is a slight exaggeration. If you have any kind of reference material I'd be interested to see it.
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Ok:
"[T]hree much smaller studies showed serious birth defects in up
to one-fourth of all children that were a product of bloodline incest, an
incidence that is about
fifteen times the expected normal frequency."
Mary Meehan. "Facing the Hard Cases." Human Life Review , Summer
1983, pages 19 to 36.
There aren't many large studies out there to prove this, because the documentation of incestually-derived children is very low. People typically aren't proud of their incestuous relationships, and aren't willing to have tests and studies done to see how many defects they've created. Regardless, many antropologists, historians, and other social scientists have noted that the taboo against incest is the only universally recognized taboo across all cultures.
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Maybe we could stick to real people. Having said that, when I heard how Pinocchio turned into an ass I changed my deviant ways for good.
This argument still ignores two things.
1) Breeding within families preserves desirable traits as well as undesirable ones. Thoroughbred race horses for example.
2) It seems you forgot to comment on the contraception part. You know the bit where the incestuous couple don't have children at all, making this argument null and void.
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Issue #1:
The only examples in history that I know of intentionally creating incestuous family lines were bismal failures. Many royal families in Europe, in order to maintain power, continually married within family lines to keep power concentrated within the family. It did not turn out well, and you can do some research if you'd like to see the hideous messes that were left behind. I have yet to see inbreding used effectly and intentionally with humans. Do you have a single example? Also, many inbred dogs have common defects such as blindness, back problems, etc.
Issue #2:
Ok, lets get all incestuous couples to sign an affidavit before getting married that claims that under no circumstances will they have unprotected sex, and in any case that the protected sex yields an accidental pregnancy the state will sponser manditory abortions. Furthermore, the state should simply put manditory sterilization requirements upon incestuous couples and then we have 100% certainty that nothing bad will ensue. I'm sure that human rights advocates will have no problem with that.