Normalizing Incest

At The Week, Damon Linker poses some uncomfortable questions for advocates of same-sex marriage.

“Do you support the right of consenting adult brothers and sisters to marry? If not, why not? What legal or moral principle justifies granting marriage rights to unrelated same-sex couples while denying such rights to brothers and sisters? . . . If you do support the right of brothers and sisters to marry, is it because you think there’s nothing wrong with (or even something potentially good about) incestuous relationships? Or do you support the right to incestuous marriage despite being disgusted by the practice?”

These are not theoretical questions, at least in Germany, where an Ethics Council has advised the government to abolish consensual incest between brothers and sisters.

As Linker says, “in recent years some liberals have begun to argue that it is not enough for traditionalist religious believers merely to tolerate same-sex marriage. Instead, these people must positively affirm the legitimacy and goodness of gay marriage as an institution. Otherwise, they run the risk of perpetuating the evil of homophobia. Which brings us to: Is it acceptable to affirm the right of incestuous couples to marry while continuing to think that such marriages are depraved? Or should we combat such anti-incestuous beliefs — just like racism, sexism, and homophobia — on the grounds that they will encourage hurtful stereotypes?”

As Richard Neuhaus liked to say, one believes in the slippery slope in the same way one believes in the Hudson River.