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I will give three arguments in favour of prohibition
1 - Society DOES have the right to enforce certain norms of behaviour. We, for example, prohibit drug use when it harms no one but the person taking drugs. I wonder people would feel the same level of ambivalence if the narrator of this story was talking about a consensual relationship betwene a father and a daughter? And that isnt a facile question, and I'd ask you to really think about it... because if brother/sister relations are ok, why arent mother/son and father/daughter?
2 - Simply, it IS more likely that children born of closely related parents will suffer serious genetic problems. In some parts of the Pakistani/British community marriage amongst first cousins is quite common - and there is very clear evidence of the vastly increased incidence of serious problems with children in such cases. These people are making choices that someone else may well have to suffer for. This point was dismissed very easily by the person posting the article, it ought not to be
3 - Abuse. Now, I must say that it is possible to have a relationship between closely related people that is genuinely consensual. But I would put it to you that the vast number of incestual sexual relationships which exist in the world involve either physical abuse or abuse of familial position. We have to make laws some how, we have to draw a line
Take the age of consent. In the UK it is 16. If a girl who is 16 years and 10 days has consensual sex with her boyfriend who is 15 and 330 days... I think very few people consider her to be a paedophile or an abuser. But we have to draw a line somewhere
We draw a line at incest because very often it is also abuse, either emotion or in some cases something like rape
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"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."
The Gospel of Thomas
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