When the topic is sex we are all on the same page.
As humans our right to get intimate and even have sex has limitations. This possibly distinguishes us from other animals that can have sex with their mothers, fathers or children.
Our ability to recognize and appreciate that we can’t have sex with everyone is what makes us humans with reasoning and special understanding.
It’s common knowledge that sex between relatives is a taboo. Taboos are rarely black and white. While one person or group may consider a certain act socially unacceptable or downright immoral, another may see it simply as a part of life.
Incest, for one, has long remained one of the world’s most unmentionable taboos. At any one time there has always been and will always be people willing to climb the family tree to reach forbidden fruit.
I think sexual relationships between biologically close family members, is an idea that may make your skin crawl. But it has often been practiced around the world throughout history.
`Royals often married close family members to keep their bloodline pure and to protect the throne politically and economically.
Cultural attitudes toward incestuous relationships also vary more than one might imagine; while one group may warn of supernatural repercussions to the act, another may see spiritual virtue and deem such relationships a form of worship.
Legendary American folk-rock group The Mamas & The Papas were icons of the 1960s. Their chart-topping hits “California Dreamin'” and “Monday Monday” still play on the radio to this day. John Phillips was the leader of the group and composed a majority of their vocal arrangements.
However, in 2009, nearly a decade after Phillips had passed away, his daughter, Mackenzie, went public with tales of the incestuous relationship between her and her father that began when she was just 19 years old. The relationship ended when Mackenzie became pregnant and feared that John was the father of her child. John paid for his daughter’s abortion and the incestuous relationship finally came to an end.
In Britain, when a young lady was ‘caught’ having sex with her brother, both siblings blamed the other, citing alcohol, desperation and so, on as motivations.
This is not of concern. What is of concern is that the pair was convicted of committing incest under section 1(1) of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995.
The brother was 21, while his sister was 18. According to the law, they should be convicted. Does this mean that incest is bad and therefore punishable?
My debate is not about whether incest is okay or not. My intent is to show how an act is viewed differently by different people or communities. People just need to be taught how to make choices, especially moral ones, based on sound reasoning and evidence. First of all society shapes the way we think, reason and act. In most cases we have to choose options that society believes are okay and keep away from acts and behaviours that society condemns. If your society demonizes a particular behavior you may not have a choice buJohn Phillipst to discard such a behavior.
