Trying To Outrun Lawrence (Its Time Liberals Legalize Incest Alert - Don't Be Hypocrites!)

Townhall.com ^ | 08/28/05 | Jeff Jacoby

[goldstategop]

If you can't outlaw sodomy, you can't outlaw incest. If love is legal, then all acts of love are legal. Alan and Patricia Muth's crime were to be in love. Where are the liberal hypocrites? Its time to legalize incest now!

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

The state has a legitimate interest in protecting the welfare of children, and any children conceived in an incestuous relationship are at an elevated risk of having both major birth defects and other subtler physical defects. That by itself ought to be enough to maintain a ban on incestuous relationships.

[fieldmarshaldj]

These people don't need prison, they need some serious psychiatric help.

[claudiustg]

---Allen and Pat didn't "have to be bright," the judge growled from the bench, to know that having sex with each other was wrong.---

And evidently you don't have to be bright to be a judge either.

[longtermmemmory]

The law, according to lawrence, does not consider mere breeding. (even according to the ABA's model divorce code, adult activity defines the relations NOT the mere accessory of producing offspring)

Thus, according to the left SEX for recreation is all that matters.

[Moral Hazard]

"The state has a legitimate interest in protecting the welfare of children, and any children conceived in an incestuous relationship are at an elevated risk of having both major birth defects and other subtler physical defects."

What about when one of them is infertile? Or when they're of the same sex?

And what about people with genetic diseases that have children ? They're not put in prison even though their children have a higher risk of getting the same genetic disease.

[goldstategop]

I agree with you on the need for morals. You can make a good argument sodomy is equally hazardous to the health and welfare of a person. But as Antonin Scalia pointed out, with Lawrence ALL morals legislation is invalid. If one type of love is legally valid, so is every other variety. And how can liberals support a ban on incest when they laud homosexual relationships? I do support morals legislation - I am pointing out the inconsistency in liberals' stand on them.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[sheik yerbouty]

What's next? "A Boy and His Dog"?

[goldstategop]

If Allen and Pat merely had sex, the Left would celebrate it. The childless coupling is a liberal ideal - no wonder they support gays and abortion. Who needs kids?

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Drammach]

any children conceived in an incestuous relationship are at an elevated risk of having both major birth defects and other subtler physical defects.

This statement is only valid if the parents (or their parents) are also the product of incest..
The only other contributing factor would be if there were specifically identifiable genetic or physiological defects that had been passed down to the parents / grandparents that could be passed to the offspring..
In other words, it has to be more than a "singular" occurance within a familial group, it has to be an accepted practice..

The taboo against incest requires more than one generation.. then and only then is it valid..

This couple's children stand about the same prospect of birth defects or other physical defect as anyone else..

[goldstategop]

Yep. And this couple didn't know they were related. Prosecuting them as criminals seems extreme and unfair to me. Its not like Allen and Patricia deliberately set out to break the law.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Sonny M]

I think DU had some kind of post similiar in vein to this a long time back.

The feeling I got was that most of them thought incest (and bigamy) should be legal, but in the case of incest, certain restriction (sterilization or guarantee that the child would be aborted if it had defects, or other guarantees about finanical committement) would be applied.

The left doesn't have any kind of problem with incest, they just don't get emotional about it, and to be honest, I would rather not get them motivated into pushing it, after what happened with this Lawrence case.

[goldstategop]

I wouldn't like to see it happen either. But the Left can't just pretend its judicial activism doesn't have real world consequences for the very nature of our society and the impact on the family structure.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[tina07]

I don't think it says in the article that they didn't know they were related, they knew and had a relationship anyway if I read it correctly...

[Sonny M]

Yep. And this couple didn't know they were related. Prosecuting them as criminals seems extreme and unfair to me. Its not like Allen and Patricia deliberately set out to break the law.

From the article, it seems like they didn't know each other until 18, but they did know they were related to each other.

How they found out they were related or what the circumstances are, I'm not sure, but obviously, they did know.

[goldstategop]

Yes, exactly. What's the crime? Where's the harm? And taking their children away doesn't square with any family values I know. If they harmed any one else by what they did in the bedroom and how they raised their family, I'd like to know what it was. If biology didn't enter the picture, people would agree they were the perfect family. So it must be the brother-sister hang up thing right? In Ptolemaic Egypt, they would regarded as the epitome of the ideal family.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Sonny M]

I wouldn't like to see it happen either. But the Left can't just pretend its judicial activism doesn't have real world consequences for the very nature of our society and the impact on the family structure.

The problem with the left isn't that they don't think this activism has no effect on the family structure, its that they think its a good effect, which is frightening.

They honestly believe that gay couples and gay marriage and gay adoption are positive things, your real far left folks would push to encourage it.

Their interpretations of reality and their views of consequences are very different (and pretty much insane) to what real reality actually is and what the real effects actually are.

[goldstategop]

Love does strange things to people. Its the most forgivable of all offenses.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Sonny M]

There are better ways to spell loving then marrying ones sibling.

That said, the phrase "Love them like a brother" should never be taken in the contex it was here.

[trubluolyguy]

I don't get it, why would one perversion be allowed yet not another? I mean it's only fair right?



Sickos.