Shit, I didn’t mean to link to the same page twice!
Okay, THIS should have been the second link.
Okay, I suppose it’s not “inherently” dysfunctional. After all, they’re both human, and one party is male and the other is female. Perfectly functional.
For you, all that is true if you think so, sure. For the couple in question, not so much. Who the hell are you to set up rules for what other people DO and DO NOT DO? Your moralisms stop bearing any weight right outside your own skin.
Hmmmm, maybe because they understand that what other adults do with each other is none of their damned business, and aren’t trying to set their own opinions and reactions as the grounds for authoritarian moral strictures?
In a word, yes.
For some, it’s a lot more more than a knee jerk reaction. It’s a matter that persons who value individual liberty have put some thought into, and considered with an outlook that goes beyond their own emotional reactions and any urges toward restraining others’ behaviour they might have.
Speaking personally, as you seem so reluctant to: you’re wrong.
Maybe the OP was too lame for the Pit, as a couple of you very kindly pointed out. Maybe it should’ve been put somewhere else. However, it’s certainly got you all talking about it, and that’s a good thing.
UPDATE: more info on how it happened …
http://www.closeronline.co.uk/20929/view.aspx?dateonline=Tuesday+25+March+2008
Nah, it would have ended up here sooner rather than later anyway. 
I’m with the ‘absolutely wrong on all levels’ crowd btw, and that later information, that the father and daughter had had intermittent contact over the years shows this relationship to be even more dysfunctional and just plain wrong.
I saw snippets of the 60 Minutes program, and one thing (among many) that disturbed me immensely was the testimonial from the older daughter who is well and truly old enough to know what the fuck is going on. How in the hell is she ever going to be able to show her face again? What sort of torture are the good citizens of Mount Gambier going to inflict upon such a defenceless kid? I don’t care how loving and nurturing this family unit is, we are all social creatures and the parents’ behaviour has violated the most basic tenet of ALL societies…and the kids will be the ones to pay.
Bloody hell, those parents need locking up. :mad:
Which was my very FIRST comment. Also, read the UK Online link to learn that they had sex in a caravan only a few feet away from where her kids were sleeping. This article is the eyeopener that some posters to this thread need in order for them to look at the “well where the fuck do we draw it” line. Shudder.
As for him publicly saying ‘it was the best sex ever’ - what goes through your mind for instance when your daughter is giving you head? :eek:
Yeah, once the couple becomes aware of the odds of having a healthy child versus a very ill child (especially one that will likely die very young) then it becomes unethical for them to continue trying to have children. This is just my opinion. No, it shouldn’t be law, with the exception of incest because it is known how likely incest is to produce offispring with genetic problems.
I agree, but only for the reason it is illegal where they are. Ethically, I don’t see the Deaves (seriously? Pronounced “deves”? And I thought Celeste rhyming with incest was bad.) as very different from a couple who has children knowing they could pass on cystic fibrosis, ADD, cancer, or any genetically-linked defect. It’s the chance you take when you have kids, and I can’t condemn the Deaves for doing it without condemning every set of parents who gambles with genetic defects.
I think incest is icky, and the thought of either of them having sex, much less with each other, is pretty unsettling. What they did isn’t something I would do or encourage anyone else to do. But that’s about the extent of my outrage. The relationship was consensual and they seem happy. Whatever social repercussions they face are of their own making and theirs to deal with. I sort of doubt that their kids being harassed about it is a realistic concern, as people tend to have short memories, but if it becomes a problem, they could always move.
Was it in public? The caravan, I mean. Were the children ever put at any risk?
I don’t know, why don’t you ask him? I wouldn’t be down with getting head from my mom, but I certainly don’t think that should be illegal for someone who would want it.
Boom. Exactly.
Dang, what a mess… and talk about a gnarled family tree…
I’m on the side of that what’s most disturbing is the fact that there are children involved; and I mean the effect on the natural child and the social oprobium upon the other children AND the effect on these children’s adaptation of growing up having the lines of family structure so distorted. Throw in the children and that’s a deal-breaker all around.
BUT… taking a good honest look at my feelings/reaction I have to admit that in the absence of the disrupting-lives-of-children factor, my reaction to a case of true **consenting-adult ** incest would be on the order of “OK, like, this is just wrong… but it’s your life, not mine.” Notice, I’m not saying it’s “right”, I’m just saying it’s not up to me to intervene to make them stop.
Now, truly consenting adults should know better and be aware of the legal penalties and social oprobium they risk, if they persist in a condut that their society censures; it’s that I don’t suffer the visceral “sickening” revulsion that I know affects other people upon considering the very idea. (OTOH someone in his situation talking about “it was the best sex ever” is just idiotic…)
I cannot possibly fathom how a parent/child sexual relationship could be justified as consenting adults regardless of the age of the actors.
I think this situation is pretty darn squicky, but I can see why a relationship can be justified in consenting adults. I’d be squicked out by first cousins marrying, but I can justify that in consenting adults.
Food for thought:
Back in the old days it was considered incest for a widow to have a relation with a brother-in-law (Hamlet) and step siblings to do the same. Life has changed since then.
I also wonder how many of you that are thinking or shouting “it’s not your business/dont inflict your morals on the rest of us” would feel the same way if you were directly involved - say, your mother having sex & babies with your brother… your sister with your father… your husband and your daughter; your wife and son? but hey, remember, they are legal consenting adults.
They are teaching the children that this relationship is OK. JUST because they are of legal age DOES NOT mean they are healthy individuals. Just because there is no sign of physical damage does not mean that there is not emotional/psychological damage.
Which is why I specified parent/child rather than cousins or even siblings. The latter two instances I could (under some circumstances) regard as involving open and informed consent between two adults. Parent/child? Never.
It’s the generational thing for me as well. Not parent/child; not grandparent/child; not aunt/nephew or uncle/niece. I’m squiked out re the sibs, don’t get me wrong, but to me, the older generation/younger gen is wrong due to the erasure of familial boundaries. I don’t buy the genetic anomaly stuff so much–didn’t Cecil do a column on that?
I would be grossed out if it was my mom and brother or sister and my dad. But if they were happy and neither was forced into the relationship and they didn’t expect me to imitate or accept them, then I would have to make peace with it. It’s their lives. This in and of itself isn’t anything I’d disown them over.
My husband and daughter? You mean ex-husband, right? (The father in this case was not married when the relationship with his daughter began.) Assuming they’re happy and it was consensual and all that? Yeah, I’d be almost completely weirded out, but if my ex-husband was no longer my husband, and my daughter was an adult, what could I do? Forbid two adults from entering a consensual relationship? Jeopardize my presumably good relationship with my ex and daughter over something they’re happy about? I’d wish I’d had an explicit “Don’t fuck your dad” talk with her, of course, but I don’t see how flipping out or throwing out ultimatums or doing whatever you think is appropriate accomplishes anything good.
BTW, the only people I see shouting anything are very much opposed to the Deaves’ arrangement.
Y’know, I’d say 99 percent of people living on this earth who have an !Q > 60 don’t actually need to be told to not fuck your kids/parents. Funny how some things just go without sayin’.
No, because I’d feel the same way if it were a mother and her son.
Are you saying that he shouldn’t do that?