Incest

Okay, so I think that I surprised some people when I stated that incestuous marriages should be legal. Well...yes, I am THAT liberal! This is in line with two of my beliefs about marriage: (1) as long as U.S. government has created the benefits-attached institution of civil marriage, all adult citizens should be eligible to enter into this legal contract with whichever consenting adult they love most and to whom they desire to make a lifelong commitment; and (2) marriage is not necessarily about procreation. This is why our nation allows marriage between people who are sterile, genetically defective, child abusers, or have no desire to create or adopt children.

Connie, I haven't checked out the links you provided, because frankly, it doesn't matter what the risks are for siblings, cousins, parent-child, etc. having children (although I think the risks are lower than many people think). But it doesn't matter! For what it's worth, the MD/PA couple in the Post article I mentioned explicitly stated that they did not intend to have children. But the fact is, they are planning to spend their lives together no matter what the government says, so why can't the government just go ahead and make their union a civil marriage? To do that would NOT mean that our government "condones incest". Divorce and adultery are legal, but does that mean that our government condones them? I hope not!!

Regarding the "propensity for power abuses" that might occur if a father marries a daughter: unfortunately, the notion of an older, more powerful man forcing a minor or much younger woman to marry him and making it appear consensual (when it is really brainwashing) is already a problem (remember the Texas cult compound thing? Although I don't think those were legal marriages). It's awful, and it needs to be prevented, but I don't think allowing incestuous marriages will increase these occurrences, especially if we redouble our efforts to prevent domestic violence and abuse again women. We should be ensuring that ALL relationships, not just marriage, are consensual and free from abuse.

Anyway, my take-home point is that our society would be better in multiple ways if the legal contract of civil marriage accommodated ALL couples who desire a life-long commitment to each other, as long as these relationships are between consenting adults.