From adoption to incest

Every once in a while I come across a car crash of a web page. That is, I just have to stare in fascination. So today, I cam across a article about a one particular edition of the Steve Wilkos Show, which featured a father and daughter actually participating in real-life incest. Yes, that’s right, incest. And not just having sex, but an actual girlfriend/boyfriend relationship.

Obviously, the reaction from the programme audience and presenter was one of shock, disgust and pity. But it got me thinking…if here are two people, about as closely related as you can get, engaged in a sexual relationship, there must be others. So what is the prevalence of consensual incest?

Certainly, the idea of genetic sexual attraction, where two people from the same gene pool (i.e. family) are attracted to each other, is accepted. Indeed, 50% of reunions between siblings or between parents and children, who have been separated at birth, result in obsessive emotions.  But the research shows that this is because the relatives are meeting as adult strangers and this was the case in the father/daughter ‘couple’ on the Steve Wilkos Show. Of course, this doesn’t mean that an incestuous relationship will necessarily develop.

I wonder therefore whether taking children away from the families, even putting them up for adoption, is such a great idea. Sure, there may be justifiable reasons why a baby or child should be removed and it may seem like a good solution in the short term. But, 50% hardly seems like a small risk in the long term.

I guess it is similar issue to care for the elderly. There is a strong argument to make sure that everything should be done to ensure that old people can stay in their homes. Well, surely the same argument would apply to the other end of the age scale – everything should be done to ensure babies and children, who are just as vulnerable, can stay in the family home or with their families. After all, why should a mother feel that she has no choice but to give her newborn baby up birth or put her children into care because she has problems. Surely, society has an obligation to support her. But that of course is the more difficult option.