Is it Morally Permissible for Siblings to Have Sex?

If birth control is used, is there any moral reason for siblings from abstaining from sex? When I asked this on a religious forum a few muslims were disgusted with me.

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Permalink Reply by Pope Beanie on December 19, 2010 at 6:55am

But excluding the procreation aspect, if the people were not raised with that taboo, they would not be mentally harmed by their sexual activities. The study cited is very poor science as it has no control group. In order to test a taboo, one would have to subjects of both perspectives.

Can you cite a scientific study to support your claim?

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Permalink Reply by T A A on December 19, 2010 at 8:11am

do you have a scientific study to support the harm argument?

I think "mental harm" is like god... burden of proof is on the harm side.

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Permalink Reply by Reggie on September 9, 2010 at 11:29am

Morally permissable? Peter Singer posed that popular question in one of his books where siblings had sex once, both used birth control to ensure no baby, they kept it secret, and were closer and happier for it. Was it morally wrong?

Nope.

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Permalink Reply by Reggie on September 9, 2010 at 11:29am

Oh, I see Adriana found the source material above my post.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Sizer-Watt on September 9, 2010 at 11:59am

I'd actually heard it from a video lecture of Hauser's. I think he may have used it in Moral Minds - I don't remember.

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Permalink Reply by Gaytor on September 9, 2010 at 11:50am

Is it morally wrong? Depends on whether or not you've seen my sisters!

I'm with many others that the potential results is the largest problem in the equation. Biologically and socially an offspring is more likely to have problems. Knowingly subjecting them to that potential would be wrong. The social abhorrence of the questions confuses the answer for me. The act is not a moral problem, but results are. It may be a fine line between Ethics, in the sense of cultural norms, versus Morals, being right and wrong, in a given society that you are exposing. It's a tough question.

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Permalink Reply by Shine on September 9, 2010 at 12:00pm

Is it morally wrong? Depends on whether or not you've seen my sisters!

Oh, I needed a laugh this morning. Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Reggie on September 9, 2010 at 12:41pm

Chuckles!

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Permalink Reply by Not Important on December 19, 2010 at 10:13am

Are you saying it is socially abhorrent for a person with a known genetic defect to have children? Same result, different process.

It's hard to keep your prejudices from tripping over one another.

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Permalink Reply by T A A on December 19, 2010 at 10:31am

One thing it is is imbued with ego... "ooh I MUST procreate, I am sooo precious"

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Permalink Reply by Shine on September 9, 2010 at 12:07pm

As an only child, I always find it hard to judge sibling dynamics. While I do find sibling intercourse to be repugnant for reasons I can't really define, I still just don't really understand the issue at hard. I'm not saying that if I had a hypothetical brother or sister that I would sleep with him or her; I guess I just feel disinterested by the scenario in general because that sort of familial relationship is utterly foreign to me.

But about the increased genetic abnormality resulting from incest: there was a thread on here about incest a few months ago where I think I recall several people listing reasons why this is a popular misconception with little actual science to back it up. Basically, I think the point was that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the pairing of sibling gametes; any issues arise purely from the increased likelihood that siblings will share similar negative gene mutations. I think the point was that this chance for negative gene mutations was far less likely than commonly perceived; therefore, the idea of incest resulting in mutant children is highly overblown. I'm late for school right now but I'll try to find it later.

Adriana, resident scientist of the thread, is this accurate or am I jumbling up my memories into clouds of misinformation?