# Children of incestuous relationships? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 9, 2013, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910 "2013-05-09T17:45:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/21 "2013-05-10T03:36:15Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > True. But she’s a child of an incestuous relationship, so I figured it was on topic. I’m not saying it’s off topic, just commenting on the relative scope. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/22 "2013-05-10T03:42:49Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I’m not saying it’s off topic, just commenting on the relative scope. Crap. That wasn’t intentional. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/23 "2013-05-10T03:46:07Z")
W…T…F… this thread is :eek: The only messed up scenario I personally know about is seriously tame by comparison. ie, a married couple who were step brother and sister and had been bought up as brother and sister from a reasonably early age. ---
**Author:** ![Tequila\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a6a055/32.png) [@Tequila\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tequila_Party)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/24 "2013-05-10T05:26:11Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > I have now discovered that Harris was not raised by the dad she later had a sexual relationship with, so that renders me less surprised. > > **Corkboard** , was your incesting friend raised by the dad she had sex with? Sorry. It had been a while since I read it and I’d forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/25 "2013-05-10T05:33:46Z")
> [@tomcar](#): > > Come on! You have to be making this up. Wish I was. She and her family were incredibly trashy and dysfunctional in pretty much any way you could think of (and thonking back, both mom and daughter had several signs of what may have been meth use), but even that was too much for everyone. She ended up being fired. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/26 "2013-05-10T09:13:10Z")
> [@HardlySanguine](#): > > Heh. I bet we could find instances of daughters raping fathers. …and you wouldn’t have to do a **lot** of research, either. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/27 "2013-05-10T09:15:04Z")
> [@April\_R](#): > > My mom has worked as a social worker in Tennessee for about 14 years. There was a woman she was working with that was trying to get benefits for her child based on the death of the father. The mother and father had never been married yet shared the same last name. My mom having to know the circumstances of why this was the case found out from the woman that the father listed on the birth certificate was her biological brother. This was in East Tennessee and not unheard of. At this point, I know of no offspring, but this thread hit a nerve. The first inkling that I’d ever heard of incest was in high school. I heard a rumor from acquaintance who was convinced that a person he worked with was sleeping with his own sister. This acquaintance wasn’t fazed by much; but I never forgot that 10,000 yard stare of incomprehension when he told me about it. Later, a high school teacher once told me quietly that he’d intervened in case when he saw some very inappropriate behavior between a brother-sister at school (unrelated to the above), which proved to be incestuous. Wouldn’t reveal who it was–I made it clear I didn’t want to ever know. It was skeevy as hell. Around the time of the second incidence, I found a book on sexual behavior at the library, and with respect to incest, such incidences were “1-in-a-million”. “Wow,” I thought, “What are the odds of running into two unrelated cases like that!” By the late 80’s, IIRC, it was pretty clear that incest was vastly underestimated. I moved to east TN in the late 90’s. While participating in a woman’s shelter fund-raiser, a social worker told me of a case involving the father and his daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter. There was one rumor I heard, that I never could substantiate, that sometimes churches split up because of “claims” to a particular person. There were a lot of churches for an area that didn’t have much in terms of population (think of a county with a population of 5000 with 50 churches). Most of the church’s congregations consisted of family members and their relatives. So yeah, the prerequisites were there, but whenever I heard of a split, it was usually over dogma, money, or my favorite, a secular dispute between two members in the congregation boiling over into church politics… When I moved to Knoxville, a coworker told me about a grandfather banging his granddaughter on a rooftop one day in a very rural area in east TN and being mad as hell about it when he was arrested by the cops, demanding to know why it was anybodies business. And then there was a family friend’s mother who slept with her five(?) sons in West Virginia. I think one son ended up on death roll, another as an alcoholic, and the rest never really did much with their lives. I figured, “Well, that’s Appalachia…it doesn’t really happen anywhere else.” After moving back to California… Well, it serves me right for stereotyping. Run into a social worker who tells me about a small percentage of the “misanthropes” who live far out in them there hills. The worker would evaluate the children’s health and concluded that the “genetic anomalies” found were highly likely the result of incest. A salute to social workers who deal with this mess. You’ve got grace–I sure as hell don’t; even writing about this is a pretty unpleasant experience. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/28 "2013-05-10T11:48:02Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > True. But she’s a child of an incestuous relationship, so I figured it was on topic. No, she’s not. In many (most?) states, if they decided to marry, that would be legal. Same with step-siblings. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/29 "2013-05-10T12:32:47Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > He said he’d done tests and everything to prove it. He did the tests? He has a lab in his kitchen? ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/30 "2013-05-10T12:44:10Z")
Uncle - neice within the circle of my acquaintances. They were a family with about five brothers - my brother was friends with them when we were teenagers and I hung out with a few of the brothers, too. Rumours of some serious family dysfunction surfaced over the years as well as incidents that were reported in local papers linked to some of the brothers. My brother has stayed loosely in touch through mutual friends - he told me about one of the brothers partying with his much younger neice and her friends and eventually fathering a child with her. Openly acknowledged by all involved. Yeah, creepy. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/31 "2013-05-10T13:16:23Z")
My grandfather, allegedly, was the product of father-daughter incest according to whispered family tradition. I don’t know of any proof, but it fits the historical and genealogical records I have found. It could have been consensual but rape is more likely. As far as I know he never knew about the incest; he told me once that his dad was unknown and not listed on his birth certificate (that part is true). ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/32 "2013-05-10T13:28:38Z")
My father sired a daughter on his daughter, adopted the daughter/granddaughter and raised her (she’s only four years older than me and is my sister). She then went on to marry our aunt’s ex-husband. That’s not incest, but it is very weird given the rest of it. > [@FriarTed](#): > > No, she’s not. In many (most?) states, if they decided to marry, that would be legal. Same with step-siblings. If they’re legally adopted then they can’t legally marry. In any state in the US, or in the UK. This came up before on this forum and I provided a cite then, but can’t now as I’m on my phone - hopefully someone else will step up to the plate. That doesn’t mean they can’t have sex and make babies, of course, but the same goes for other incestuous relationships. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/33 "2013-05-10T14:17:20Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Yet again I find myself surprised by something I probably should not have been surprised by. > > I’d’ve bet money, before reading this thread, that no daughter has _ever_ had consensual sex with a man who was both her biological father and raised her as his child. > > **Corkboard** do you know if it was just some kind of impulsive (drunken?) “let us never speak of this again” sort of event? > [@Frylock](#): > > I have now discovered that Harris was not raised by the dad she later had a sexual relationship with, so that renders me less surprised. > > **Corkboard** , was your incesting friend raised by the dad she had sex with? I don’t know the details, other than it only happened once about a year before I found out about it. He was her biological father but her parents had divorced when she was a kid, and although she saw him somewhat regularly as she grew up, I don’t think he played much of a part in raising her. According to my ex, she also had sex with a somewhat older Chinese man that she knew from the neighborhood she lived in. I think it’s safe to say she had some issues about sex. She was an attractive woman, had a great figure and seemed normal, or as normal as anyone does, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/34 "2013-05-10T14:30:59Z")
You see pop-culture stories about grossly deformed or crippled children of incest. How accurate is that? In other words, how much incest until obvious problems pop up? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/35 "2013-05-10T14:51:06Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > You see pop-culture stories about grossly deformed or crippled children of incest. How accurate is that? In other words, how much incest until obvious problems pop up? IIRC that is more of an issue in populations where inbreeding is recursive after generations (e.g. the original parents/grandparents are already cousins to start with). It depends also on what hereditary disorders are in the bloodline to begin with, as most severe disorders are recessive. Somewhere I read that in first-generation incest, parent-child and sibling-siblig pairings have a sharply distinct difference in probabilities of recessive disorders manifesting, but right now I can’t look it up. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/36 "2013-05-10T14:53:26Z")
It depends on “how much” incest. Families that have been interbreeding for generations definitely have greater danger of genetic problems. Cousin marriages count, as well as the more obviously repugnant matches. For example, there’s [Charles II of Spain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_Spain). > [@](#): > > Dating to approximately the year 1550, outbreeding in Charles II’s lineage had ceased (see also pedigree collapse). From then on, all his ancestors were in one way or another descendants of Joanna and Philip I of Castile, and among these just the royal houses of Spain, Austria and Bavaria. Charles II’s genome was actually more homozygous than that of an average child whose parents are siblings. He was born physically and mentally disabled, and disfigured. Possibly through affliction with mandibular prognathism, he was unable to chew. His tongue was so large that his speech could barely be understood, and he frequently drooled. It has been suggested that he suffered from the endocrine disease acromegaly, or his inbred lineage may have led to a combination of rare genetic disorders such as combined pituitary hormone deficiency and distal renal tubular acidosis. His family tree is at the link… ---
**Author:** ![SleuFeets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@SleuFeets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SleuFeets)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/37 "2013-05-10T14:57:42Z")
ho hum approach to this topic, and echo responses that a daughter could have consensual sex with her father without severe mental problems/abuse - is disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/38 "2013-05-10T15:06:37Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > …and you wouldn’t have to do a **lot** of research, either. Nice. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/39 "2013-05-10T15:21:01Z")
> [@user\_hostile](#): > > A salute to social workers who deal with this mess. You’ve got grace–I sure as hell don’t; even writing about this is a pretty unpleasant experience. Yeah my mom through her job as a social worker has had to witness more of the underbelly of humanity than any one person should ever have to ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/40 "2013-05-10T15:30:02Z")
> [@SleuFeets](#): > > ho hum approach to this topic, and echo responses that a daughter could have consensual sex with her father without severe mental problems/abuse - is disgusting. I think ho-hum responses to abuse are disgusting, but I have to say that sibling incest doesn’t bother me at all. I assume that’s because I’m an only child and I fundamentally don’t get what it means to be a sibling. (In other words, I believe the rest of you that it’s a Bad Thing.) On the other hand, I can’t even imagine a situation when parent-child relationships would be okay. In my own family’s case, it’s a very, very screwed-up family, and I wonder how much this has to do with it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910.md?page=3)