Question:
Many people have their own opinons on family romance and im curiouse what are your thoughts?

My Answer:
EDIT: In respond to your "additional info," that is not acceptable at all. For your friend to interest in her dad, that is just not right. Even if they are not relative, the difference in age is still too much. You should stop your friend before things become ugly.


Original Answer (before you provide the "addition info):
Depends. What kind of "incest" are you talking about? Is it parent and child, brother and sister (no more than 3 years apart), or cousin and cousin (no more than 3 years apart)?

If the difference of their age are within reasonable range (half your age and plus seven or whatever, depending on their age group [e.g. teen, adult, middle age, etc.]), then, personally, I don't see anything wrong with it. Partially because I am a fairly open person when it comes to accepting something "uncommon," and partially because:

#1. It's not strange to develop a certain feeling toward a person of the opposite sex whom you spent your childhood with. It's part of human nature--the Westermarck effect.

#2. We have accepted people of difference race and religion into our society. We have also accepted homosexual (same-sex attraction, e.g. gay relationship or lesbian relationship). Why can't we accept incest between siblings and cousins? In fact, there are some countries in the Middle East that are still allow cousin marriage.


***Note: I haven't said anything about "having children" yet. I will tackle the argument now:

#3. Alan Bittles, an Australian geneticist, has collected data to show that the risk of birth defects increases from 2% in the general population to 4% when the parents are closely related. 2% to 4%? Not that much, don't you think?
[Source: http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/humannature/archive/2008/05/19/incest-and-delayed-motherhood.aspx ]

#4. A woman over 40 has an elevated risk of giving birth to a child with defects. People who with autosomal dominant disorders have a 50% chance of having children with the same disorder. That is A LOT HIGHER than between siblings and cousins. Why, I ask you, are we not banning them from having children?



#5. Again, go back to what I said in #2. It's just all about accepting. Many people are just "going along with the popular belief," just like how, in the past, people did not accept blacks and homosexuality.

Half your age and plus seven--the good-old dating age formula. If it's within that age interval, then I don't see anything wrong with incest. Of course the formula has some reasonable limits, but use your common sense.

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