Germany's highest court has upheld the law making incest a criminal offence, rejecting an appeal from a man who has had four children with his sister. The court ruled that the state was within its rights to protect "family order" and prevent the serious genetic illnesses that could arise from incest.
Germany's English-speaking crowd
In association with The Local
In association with The Local
Germany's highest court upholds incest law
Man jailed for having four children with sister
BBC News: German court upholds incest law
what if you dont have children?
See also the lengthy discussion from last year when the case first went to court: German couple fight to legalise incest
Choice quotes:
Choice quotes:
She's not even decent looking.
To be an incestuous couple is one thing, to have children and in that matter four of them is irresponsible and selfish... There is a biological reason why incest is a tabu/forbidden in almost all societies ... higher chance to have a handicapped child
I thought incest was legal in Germany and Norfolk
Incest - a game the whole family can play.
They're out on the streets here in East Anglia outraged that this decision in Germany could make half the population here illegal.
Today, the German Constitutional Court decided that incest, i.e. sexual intercourse between relatives of the first degree, meaning parents, their direct issues (= biological children) and siblings of the whole blood (sorry for the legal terms), is indeed a misdemeanour. Forbidding it does not infringe anybody’s right to his or her sexual identity (psst, this is where the constitutional aspect comes in!).
Patrick, who had been sentenced to app. two years in prison for at least four counts of intercourse with his biological sister Susan, had argued in this direction.
The court’s main argument was the eugenic aspect, i.e. the avoidance of possible genetic defects due to the genetic information shared by close relatives, in this case biological siblings. The prevention of these defects is covered under the German Constitution. Winfried Hassemer of the Constitutional Court, who represented the dissenting position, does not believe that the German Constitution includes the prevention of genetically “tainted� life. “The populace’s health as an abstract object worthy of protection is not part of the consideration“, he stated. “People who are likely to conceive handicapped children are not liable to persecution from reasons inherent in (recent*) German history“.
According to German radio news, Patrick intends to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
*my addition
EDIT: I was going to tack this on to the original thread but it's better off here.
Patrick, who had been sentenced to app. two years in prison for at least four counts of intercourse with his biological sister Susan, had argued in this direction.
Bei seiner Verfassungsbeschwerde baute er auf das Recht auf sexuelle Selbstbestimmung und wandte sich gegen das Verbot des Geschlechtsverkehrs unter „leiblichen Verwandten“ nach Paragraf 173 des Strafgesetzbuchs.
He had even had a vasectomy preformed as he had been convinced by third parties that the issue, i.e. the four children resulting from his relationship with his sister, were the real problem. But they were “only� the proof. Of these four children, three are living with foster parents, two of them show genetic defectsThe court’s main argument was the eugenic aspect, i.e. the avoidance of possible genetic defects due to the genetic information shared by close relatives, in this case biological siblings. The prevention of these defects is covered under the German Constitution. Winfried Hassemer of the Constitutional Court, who represented the dissenting position, does not believe that the German Constitution includes the prevention of genetically “tainted� life. “The populace’s health as an abstract object worthy of protection is not part of the consideration“, he stated. “People who are likely to conceive handicapped children are not liable to persecution from reasons inherent in (recent*) German history“.
According to German radio news, Patrick intends to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
*my addition
EDIT: I was going to tack this on to the original thread but it's better off here.
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