# Is incest legal in Sweden? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 27, 2004, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-incest-legal-in-sweden/266342 "2004-09-27T19:52:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FX45\_4Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4bbf92/32.png) [@FX45\_4Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FX45_4Ever)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-incest-legal-in-sweden/266342/21 "2004-09-28T16:07:20Z")
> [@FX45 4Ever](#): > > I just got married in Hawaii on 9/22, and on the Marriage form there was a check block that asked if we were of blood relations. Apparently full blooded Hawaiians tend to like to maintain their heritage (said the clerk)… ewwe :eek: Dang, hit post instead of preview. cite: Cousin Marriages: Cousins may marry. However, the blood relationship between the prospective bride and groom cannot be closer than first cousins. [http://usmarriagelaws.com/search/united\_states/hawaii/index.shtml](http://usmarriagelaws.com/search/united_states/hawaii/index.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-incest-legal-in-sweden/266342/22 "2004-09-28T17:41:24Z")
Donald E. Brown, quoted in Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate, lists a number of Human Universals - “surface” universals noted by ethnologists the world over. Universals in this sense are behaviors or overt language structures that are found in EVERY culture examined. It omits near-universals (traits that most but not all cultures show) and conditional universals (if a culture has A trait, it always has B). On that list are “incest between mother and son unthinkable or tabooed,” and “incest - prevention or avoidance.” The list does not distinguish between cultures that have actual written laws in place, and those that do not. However, it does appear that using this as a reference, it would be difficult to find a culture that does not express this universal behavior in some fashion. Even liberal old Sweden. ---
**Author:** ![Badge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Badge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badge)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-incest-legal-in-sweden/266342/23 "2004-09-28T19:02:24Z")
Washington state has an incest law as well. I’ve convicted one person of it (elderly man having a sexual relationship with his 23 year old developmentally delayed granddaughter). RCW 9A.64.020 Incest. (1)(a) A person is guilty of incest in the first degree if he or she engages in sexual intercourse with a person whom he or she knows to be related to him or her, either legitimately or illegitimately, as an ancestor, descendant, brother, or sister of either the whole or the half blood. (b) Incest in the first degree is a class B felony [up to 10 years in prison]. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-incest-legal-in-sweden/266342/24 "2004-09-28T20:23:03Z")
Intriguing… Under the Georgia statutes as posted by **Walloon** , homosexual incest (except between grandparent and grandchild) would be legal. Presumably this is because homosexual sex (regardless of relation) is prohibited elsewhere? If that’s the case, then they’re going to have a bit of a mess on their hands when that other law is eventually repealed. Or perhaps the “twin sisters porn” industry just has powerful lobbyists in Georgia? ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-incest-legal-in-sweden/266342/25 "2004-09-28T22:33:19Z")
> [@CC](#): > > Donald E. Brown, quoted in Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate, lists a number of Human Universals - “surface” universals noted by ethnologists the world over. Universals in this sense are behaviors or overt language structures that are found in EVERY culture examined. It omits near-universals (traits that most but not all cultures show) and conditional universals (if a culture has A trait, it always has B). On that list are “incest between mother and son unthinkable or tabooed,” and “incest - prevention or avoidance.” The list does not distinguish between cultures that have actual written laws in place, and those that do not. However, it does appear that using this as a reference, it would be difficult to find a culture that does not express this universal behavior in some fashion. Even liberal old Sweden. In my Kinship and Marriage class (anthro grad student), my professor must have been citing this when he mentioned that the incest taboo was one of the few universal taboos. The trick, though, is how each culture defines incest. In some, marrying your niece is fine; at the other end of the spectrum, men in some cultures feel unclean if they even view their mother-in-law. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-incest-legal-in-sweden/266342/26 "2004-09-28T23:49:07Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > … at the other end of the spectrum, men in some cultures feel unclean if they even view their mother-in-law. Hell, I feel unclean when I talk to my mother-in-law on the telephone … ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-incest-legal-in-sweden/266342/27 "2004-10-04T04:45:47Z")
> [@Mathochist](#): > > That’s not an inconsistency; it was designed that way. > > That is to say, other than the stuff we said before that the federal government is in charge of, the states can run things all in pretty much their own way. Of course it was designed that way… that doesn’t change the fact that from state to state a person should be aware that the laws may not be the same. State laws are not consistent in the sense that, they may be breaking the law once they cross the border. I was reading some article recently regarding a married couple winding up in jail because their marriage wasn’t legal in the state they were visiting. Maybe they had just moved there. I’ll see if I can find it again. They were an older couple who got married as first cousins in order basically to help each other survive. They pooled their resources and moved in together. IIRC the problem arose when they wanted to redo their wills making each other their beneficiary…anyway my point was just that you better be careful because there are plenty of laws that aren’t “consistent” across state lines. [Cecil speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/041001.html) ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-incest-legal-in-sweden/266342/28 "2004-10-04T04:59:54Z")
I interpreted “inconsistent” in a technical sense of “self-contradictory”. My mistake. ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-incest-legal-in-sweden/266342/29 "2004-10-05T05:07:24Z")
That’s understandable, I wasn’t exactly happy with the word either but couldn’t find a better one off the top of my head without going into a long explanation. Perhaps I should have said, “inconstistency of the laws” instead of the legal system. The system IS fairly consistent. It’s the laws that aren’t. Better? 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-incest-legal-in-sweden/266342.md?page=1)