Sex between Siblings should be LEGAL, says German government’s Ethics Council

Government's ethics council, Germany has said sex between brothers and sisters should be legal-a 'fundamental right'.

They recommended that the right of 'adult siblings to sexual self-determination' was more important then the 'abstract idea of protection of the family,' following the case of Patrick Stuebing, who was jailed for more than three years after having four children - two of which are disabled-with his sister Susan Karolewski.

Stuebing was put up for adoption as a toddler and only met his sister when he was 24 and she was 16. He was imprisoned for incest in 2008.

Daily Mail said, he made an unsuccessful appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in 2012 over his right to a family life - as he and Ms Karolewski were split up and three of their children were taken into care. The youngest was allowed to remain with Ms Karolewski.

'The Ethics Council has been told of cases where half-siblings did not grow up together and have only met in their adult lives,' The Independent reported it saying.

Despite saying that sex between brothers and sisters should be made legal, the council recommended that sex between parents and children should remain against the law. 

It is believed that incest increases the risk of children being born with disabilities, but the Ethics Council dismissed this as an argument for it being illegal, saying that couples with genetic defects are not banned from having children.

According to an estimate by the Max Planck Institute reported by The Telegraph, around two to four per cent of Germans have had 'incestuous experiences'.

Though incest is illegal in the UK and most of Europe, sex between consenting adults who are related is legal in France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands.

Source: Dailymail