# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/81 "2016-12-07T12:37:56Z")
> [@larkinjet](#): > > Do you mean that I spent an hour composing a piece to post and then discover that no one has posted on this thread for 12 years ? What year are you posting from, and can I have a look at your time machine? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/82 "2016-12-07T13:28:35Z")
Yes, I know it’s a zombie, but whatever… > [@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? You can get “obvious problems” without any incest involved at all. That said, incest increases the odds. The more incest in a family tree the more likely such things are. You can also get the opposite - someone where instead of concentrating problem traits you might get one concentrating positive ones. Or a mix of exceptionally good with the bad. That is the whole point of selective livestock breeding - to concentrate desired traits, and closely related matings are part of that. Of course, with people you don’t have anyone intelligent directing the mating choices so it’s more likely you’ll get problems than positives. Which is why incest taboos are pretty close to universal in human cultures (there are a few exceptions, usually royalty). > [@Dr.Drake](#): > > See, I would disagree that he treated her well. I concede that I might be wrong, but imagine how much better it would be if he cared about her, treated her well, and did _not_ have a sexual relationship with her. She clearly had issues with a parent; how could another parent not recognize that? Equally, the father in this case had once chosen the abusive mother and had also (for whatever reason, but let’s say benign ignorance on his part) left his daughter in that situation. No matter how healthy the relationship seemed, he had to know he was in another relationship with a woman who was not healthy, and that he bore some culpability for both aspects. > > I can sort of see where the situation might not be doing any more harm, but I can’t see that it would be helping her become better and healthier in the long run. Anyone who has worked in any part of social services has encountered things much, much worse and more fucked up than that, and imagining a situation where such a father-daughter pairing is the least fucked up part of the family relationships is no longer that hard. Sure, it’s not ideal. It’s pretty far from ideal. In the normal world it’s fucked up but unfortunately some people don’t live in the normal world. > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I have two cousins who got married and had three children. The creepy part is that their mothers were identical twins, so if they used their own genetic material for conception, their children are genetic half-siblings. That’s an interesting situation the legal/social degree of relatedness is different than the genetic degree of relatedness. There have been instances where two pairs of identical twins married each other - legally, the two sets of children would be first cousins and legal to marry in many places but genetically they’d be full siblings. Don’t think I’ve heard of a human culture that would take that into account. ---
**Author:** ![Covert\_Harris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Covert\_Harris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covert_Harris)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/83 "2016-12-07T14:05:37Z")
Incest is such a taboo topic, and methinks people protest too much, witness the number of interested comments here. I’ve never had the pleasure, but I’ve also never felt there was anything wrong with it if parties were mature enough to consent. I especially appreciate intimacy, and I believe sex with a close relative could be exceptionally intimate and thus enjoyable. I was impressed once by a lady friend confiding to me that as a little girl (not in this case mature enough for my theoretical prerequisite), her father and grandfather played sex games with her after dinner. They called it the “diddling hour.” While most people would consider this horrendous and immoral, the woman told me it had left her with some of the most tender and endearing memories of her life. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/84 "2016-12-07T15:32:38Z")
> [@Covert\_Harris](#): > > I was impressed once by a lady friend confiding to me that as a little girl (not in this case mature enough for my theoretical prerequisite), her father and grandfather played sex games with her after dinner. They called it the “diddling hour.” While most people would consider this horrendous and immoral, the woman told me it had left her with some of the most tender and endearing memories of her life. Good thing that it only gave her good memories, but that doesn’t change the fact that her father and grandfather were horrendous and immoral. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/85 "2016-12-07T19:58:20Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I assign the same likelihood to that having ever happened as I do to Zeus ravishing Calliope while in his daughter Artemis’s semblance. Callisto, not Calliope. Just doing my part. No need to thank me. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/86 "2016-12-07T20:18:11Z")
At family functions I get squicked out if my sister sits too close to me on the couch. ---
**Author:** ![Covert\_Harris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Covert\_Harris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covert_Harris)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/87 "2016-12-08T13:39:43Z")
> [@naita](#): > > Good thing that it only gave her good memories, but that doesn’t change the fact that her father and grandfather were horrendous and immoral. If no one ostensibly or demonstrably is hurt, Naita, then under what moral authority to you deem the act immoral? And if you call arguably pleasurable sex with a relative in a warm bed “horrendous,” what scaled-up, qualifying term would you use for being burned alive by radical Islamics, or immured under earthquake rubble? And to play devil’s advocate, staying within the boundaries of your perspective, I find adults with some emotional scarring, if you will, to be abundantly more thoughtful and interesting than those raised happy, dumb, and untampered with in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/88 "2016-12-08T14:09:42Z")
> [@larkinjet](#): > > Do you mean that I spent an hour composing a piece to post and then discover that no one has posted on this thread for 12 years ? Can you look at the financial pages\* and post the current price of a few stocks? Say, Apple, Google and Amazon? \*Oops. Make that: Holographic All Purpose Communicating/Computing Device ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/89 "2016-12-09T01:18:11Z")
> [@Covert\_Harris](#): > > If no one ostensibly or demonstrably is hurt, Naita, then under what moral authority to you deem the act immoral? Oh good, a pedophile apologist. We’ve been missing one of those since \*\*Cesario \*\*and the other one were banned. It’s so lovely when someone describes child molestation as “pleasurable sex with a relative in a warm bed.” ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/90 "2016-12-09T06:36:30Z")
> [@Covert\_Harris](#): > > If no one ostensibly or demonstrably is hurt, Naita, then under what moral authority to you deem the act immoral? And if you call arguably pleasurable sex with a relative in a warm bed “horrendous,” what scaled-up, qualifying term would you use for being burned alive by radical Islamics, or immured under earthquake rubble? > > And to play devil’s advocate, staying within the boundaries of your perspective, I find adults with some emotional scarring, if you will, to be abundantly more thoughtful and interesting than those raised happy, dumb, and untampered with in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Let me quote someone else: “I’ve also never felt there was anything wrong with it if parties were mature enough to consent”. Now I don’t fully agree with that. There are too many ways in which even grown up relatives can have influence over each other that make consent problematic at best. But it’s the core of what makes it immoral, and you already knew that. I’m not going to play your silly linguistics game. Or discuss what looks a lot like a wish for compulsory emotional scarring, but is obviously something other, but, I can’t help assuming, equivalently weird. ---
**Author:** ![cupcake222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d9b06d/32.png) [@cupcake222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cupcake222)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/91 "2017-08-22T17:55:30Z")
Im the product of incest my parents are first cousins basically my grandmothers are sisters my paremts dont pay a lot of attention to the fact there cousins they seem to love each other and are both happy and me and my sister were born healthy without any type of defects ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/92 "2017-08-22T18:58:32Z")
> [@cupcake222](#): > > Im the product of incest my parents are first cousins basically my grandmothers are sisters my paremts dont pay a lot of attention to the fact there cousins they seem to love each other and are both happy and me and my sister were born healthy without any type of defects …except the inability to use punctuation? (Sorry! SORRY! Couldn’t help it. It was sitting right THERE, just waiting…) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/93 "2017-08-22T19:06:02Z")
First cousin relationships aren’t considered incestuous in most cultures. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/94 "2017-08-23T02:39:06Z")
I’ve known many. But then I have worked in CPS for 22 years. I believe there are some creative names to fully capture the total depth of the relationships that result. Duncle = dad/uncle. I always try to treat everyone as respectfully as possible but some of these situations strain my compassion. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910/95 "2017-08-23T13:45:09Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > No, she’s not. In many (most?) states, if they decided to marry, that would be legal. Same with step-siblings. Yes, I have friends who are step siblings. They have two children. One thing that mitigates it is that they grew up in different households, even different cities. But legality was never an issue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-of-incestuous-relationships/657910.md?page=4)