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.
QUOTE
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 defects
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 additionEDIT: I was going to tack this on to the original thread but it's better off here.
