The House of Oh Hell No.

So the other day I saw this BBCA Reveals Documentary (unfortunately cannot find clips anywhere) about Genetic Sexual Attraction called "Brothers and Sisters in Love."

Genetic sexual attraction, if you don't know, is this whole phenomenon where people who are related, meeting later in life (as in the cases of children who are adopted) feel an intense sexual attraction towards one another.

I have to tell you- the whole thing kinda triggered my gag reflex, and caused me, several times to cringe into the fetal position. I mean, I get the Westermarck effect when I've known someone only platonically for longer than a month. I don't even date within my own social circle (though this is primarily because I like to keep it drama free, and am also not so into the whole "let's be friends" thing after it's over, which would make social outings rather awkward. Also, I like to be sure my friends side with me in the event of douchebaggery.).

However, I feel as though I am, perhaps, being inappropriately judgey. Let me explain- while it grosses me out and makes me want to die- I also think it's kinda icky to tell consenting adults who they can love and what they can do behind closed doors. It's hard for me to agree completely that anything relating to that sort of thing should be illegal- especially because many of the arguments against it are the same ones they use against gay people.

While it's true that children produced from such a union have a high chance of inheriting recessive genetic defects at birth (such as the infamous Hapsberg lip)- the idea of telling people they can't have children because of this poses a few problems for me. Because I wouldn't think it was right to tell someone with some sort of inheritable disease that they couldn't have children because of it, because the children might get it.

It isn't easy for me to conclude, definitively, how I feel about this- which is kind of unusual for me. Usually I feel passionately one way or the other about things. In spite of my reeling, I did feel a lot of empathy for the people involved in these situtations (though less for the parent/child relationships than for the brother/sister ones- I suppose because even at an adult stage of life it still seemed to me like the children and their need for a parent was being exploited on some level).

I don't know.