Consensual incest should be illegal in the United States

Accidental incest: Breaking a law is not a matter of fairness, as it stands when you commit the act of incest you are committing a crime. In Germany Patrick Stuebing was convicted of incest and his two children were taken away, the European union of Human rights upheld Germany's ruling basing this on the thought that Germany had a "wide margin of appreciation" (seemingly allowing someone to violate human rights with a cultural or historical precedent which is against the whole point of making a league of human rights )Unenforceability: Incest laws are unconstitutional because they violate our right to liberty, the most important principle of which is self-determination as you have said. The constitution does not matter to the government [5] it is only a matter of enforcement (if they can they will) Harm principle: Despite those studies there have been many specific cases of children born with severe genetic disorders due to incest, in the case of Patrick Stuebing his daughter and son were born with special needs and epilepsy respectively. In a study related on telegraph uk's website 700 children are born each year with rare genetic diseases due to cousin marriage.The ashkenazi jew population have a widely studied genetic profile, they carry rare genetic disease including tay-sachs disease [4] a neuronal disease which manifests itself in muscular and neuronal deterioration and depending upon the onset age can be deadly. The reason that is pertinent is that the Ashkenazi jews are an endogamous population meaning that they have been inbreeding and this inbreeding has been for generations.seemingly the argument is now [all] Consensual incest should be illegal (my argument) v [all] consensual incest should be legal. Incest is harmful socially as well as psychologically (psychosocially). it confounds human ancestry and purpose, it is a debasement of human self-worth (really she's your sister). In nearly all cases of incest it is a matter of coercion or bald power dynamics. Perhaps it shouldn't be illegal but socially and culturally it should remain taboo and that childhood "play" remains as it should as perhaps a personal fuzzy memory. Margaret Mead has a good argument for why an incest taboo need be cultivated without the intrusion of "inappropriate sexuality." Children can "wander freely, sitting on laps, pulling beards, and nestling their heads against comforting breasts-neither tempting nor being tempted beyond their years." [7]Sexual tension in a "safe" family environment would introduce a lot of unnecessary psychic pain into a childs life.Legalizing incest is going backwards in society, forcing a child to find its social identity within the framework of a family with seemingly no boundaries is a task that no one should have foisted upon them. I belive there is a reason incest is associated with pedophilia and this is statistically backed up "it is estimated that 1 in 5 women are sexually abused by a relative by the age of 16" . [6]What does this have to do with consensual sex then? Well my argument is that in no circumstances would legalizing incest be a good idea, I say no from the perspective that there are no social benefits and it does not "promote the general welfare or ensure domestic tranquility" find another sexual partner, if this argument is about whether or not true love exists ("I've found THE ONE") then please enlighten me. Legalizing incest would only legitimize incest, and it is still to be seen whether incest is a paraphilia or not, to me genetic sexual attraction (I'm attracted because they look like me) just sounds like a form of narcissism which would make sense given that Patrick Stuebings sister-wife has a personality disorder herself. 1. http://articles.latimes.com...2. http://news.bbc.co.uk...;3. http://www.telegraph.co.uk...4. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org...5. http://www.krusch.com...6. http://articles.latimes.com...7. http://www.debate.org...ps: sorry about the formatting.