Will Switzerland allow incest?

[The Straight Story]

Will Switzerland allow incest?
A Swiss law proposes decriminalizing consensual sexual relationships between parents and their adult children

Recent international scrutiny of Sweden's rape laws certainly hasn't resulted in legislative timidity among its European neighbors: Switzerland is now considering a controversial new bill to decriminalize incest. A Justice Department spokesperson explains, "Incest continues to be a taboo in our society, but it's not up to criminal law to stop every morally reprehensible aspect of behavior. Rather, the law should be for punishing behavior that's particularly socially damaging."

Marriage between second-degree relatives (aunt/uncle, niece/nephew) is already legal in Switzerland, but the new measure would overturn the ban on consensual sexual relationships between siblings, and between parents and their adult children. (Sexual relationships with underage children would, of course, remain illegal.) The text of the bill has yet to be released, but skeeved-out opponents have heard more than enough. Barbara Schmid Federer, a member of The Christian People's Party of Switzerland, told the Telegraph that the proposal was "completely repugnant" and that she "could not countenance painting out such a law from the statute books."

As I reported Friday in response to news about a Columbia professor's arrest on incest charges, some U.S. courts prosecute incestuous adult relationships on the grounds that the government has a legitimate interest in preventing inbreeding. Other courts view children as forever-and-always minors when it comes to sexual relationships with their parents: Law professor J. Dean Carro, told me, "Regardless of the age of the child, there's still a theory that a parent is always a parent, a child is always a child and, as a result, there truly can't be a consensual sexual act."

http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/2010/12/13/swiss_incest/index.html

[seabeyond]

1. we have enough problem with sexual abuse of our children from trusted relatives. grey the line

get rid of the taboo, make it a norm and we set our children up....

[xchrom]

2. ok -- ew. -- i'm not sure consensual relations between adults should

prosecutable -- but dear lord god -- i don't even want to know about this.

[hlthe2b]

3. Interesting question, though, whether they are ever really "consensual"...

Given the likelihood that most activity began much earlier when a parent's influence and manipulations are so much harder for a child to escape.


But, yes, ewww.

[seabeyond]

4. that is the consideration i think we need to have. an open road to incest and acceptance of behavior

i haev to believe there will be a shift in perspective, allowing abuse

[Democracyinkind]

5. The impetus for discarding the incest laws in Switzerland is that they are unconstitutional

Not that I'm a big fan, but this is not a measure pushed by some pedos in order to get their fun lawfully.

In Swiss law, all that incests forbids is marriage between people considered to be "related by blood"; the grounds on which this law was developed stem from the middle ages and simply don't fit any more in todays times.

All issues that you may be thinking as problematic - like a child being involved, forced "consent" or violence or psychological pressuring are covered by other laws; incest laws were never meant to handle such cases. Incest law in Switzerland is used only for cases of marriage of blood relatives, and never for issues of child molestation etc. (it's never prosecuted under "incest" charges).

Point is - this law changes nothing for potential victims of sexual or psychological abuse by the family, the one thing that seems to be a valid counter-argument. Swiss "incest" laws produced about 3-4 rulings a year, always concerning marriage of adult blood relatives where no other criminal aspects came up. The motivation for discarding this law is solely procedural, it is not meant to change the very high standard of victim protection that the Swiss law offers.