Well, I'll put it this way. If you subscribe to strictly utilitarian moral precepts, there is no greater wrong in an incestuous couple reproducing than there is in an autistic couple reproducing or two people who suffer from multiple sclerosis reproducing. In that case, it should also be wrong for two people who have HIV to reproduce. This is getting seriously difficult to make a call on, isn't it?
Therefore, how do we really justify any moral judgment? Squeamishness? Stupid. If you subscribe to the idea that you should outlaw anything that you get a bit squeamish over, I would gladly shoot you in your useless head based on the idea that I have a right to execute anyone whose behavior throws me into a fit of rage. Neither my gut feelings nor yours are valid pretexts on which to make moral judgments that may have widespread repercussions.
Squeamishness eliminated with extreme contempt, perhaps we could turn to religion. Now, if you subscribe to a religious belief and choose to make laws based on that religious belief, I think I'll just outlaw your religion based on the fact that it's not only an outrageous bother but ret*d and stupid to begin with. I would sooner murder you with a garroting cord than be governed according to your abysmally stupid and useless superstitions. For theocracy to even come close to working, everyone would have to unerringly believe in it and agree on it, and I have my doubts even then.
Having done away with theocracy, let's just try thinking like engineers. You shouldn't have any difficulty with this if you have any degree of autism and sufficient remaining common sense to access a forum and write in clear and distinct English, though I do acknowledge the limitations of statistical models in assessing the abilities of individuals:
Since the incestuous couple in question is clearly unhappy with the laws in Germany pertaining to incest, let's approach their situation like problem-solvers (it is pivotally important to the discussion that I intend this term to be constructive toward my intended meaning of "thinking like engineers" and intend to use the terms as roughly synonymous in the local context of this post). I personally am motivated to do so because I have heard what they have to say and regard them as nice and likable people to whom I feel sympathetic. One possible approach to their situation would be to offer them some literature about the genetic problems associated with incest, state very firmly our interest in preventing those kinds of problems, and offer them the full gamut marriage and adoption rights in exchange for having themselves sterilized. I would gladly even put them at the front of the line for adopting a child of their choosing.
If that didn't alleviate the problem to most people's satisfaction, I would simply try to come up with another solution. Either way, it is a difficult conundrum, and I think that it would help us a great deal if we were to simply acknowledge that it is indeed a moral dilemma.
16 Nov 2011, 9:54 pm
