I am from Brisbane. I heard on the ABC radio 7:00 AM news about 7 years ago that Parliament (weather it was State or Federal, I don't know) had changed the law to allow incest between consenting adults. I have tried to check this out to find more information and I had one law firm tell me that it was not true and that incest was still illegal regardless of the people’s age. I had another Law firm tell me that it may have been past by Parliament as law, but had not yet come onto the statutory books. I was told the powers that be, may be waiting for the appropriate timing to bring it forward as Law.

It was not legalizing incest, but rather it is decriminalizing it to allow incest between any adult family members as long as they were at lest 18 years old and were both consenting adults. Can any body shed any further information about this proposed change in the law?
Thank you.

I have absolutely no idea about this, but one thing I DO know....it would not be surprising in a 'make_it_up_as_you_go' morality.

This is one aspect of life which has never ever even entered my mind up till this point, but now having seen it, it just underlines the crucial importance of having a divine guideline for human behavior.
Incest
Homosexual acts
Bestiality

Are all equally condemned as 'abominable to God' in the Leviticus 18.

I heard just last week that there is a push from some animal liberationists to re-classify animals as 'persons' so they come under human rights law.

The mind boggles.

Thank you BOAZ_David for your comment.
I think divine guidance is not even conceded in a modern Australian society. They changed our Q.L.D. State law on Homosexuality to allow sexual activities between teenagers to be the same for both sexes. Until recently, a male had to be 18 years old to legally have sexual activities with another male 18 years old or older. If they were under 18 they could be charge with a criminal affiance. However, females only had to be 16 years old to have a lesbian relationship with another female who was 16 years old or older. But that law has now been corrected and males can have sex with other males at 16 years old just as the females do.

I grew up in NSW and they changed the law to decriminalize sex between children. If two children as young as 10 years old have sex together, there can be no legal action taken because of it. The reason for this change of law, the government spooks person gave on the radio was that... lots of children 11 and 12 were doing it and that the Government can not prevent it from occurring, so they "decriminalized" it.

We also have abortions on demand to get rid of any un-wanted pregnancies and a tablet a girl or a woman can take to abort the fetus. It is just like she is having a heavy ministration period after she takes the tablet and she is back at work or school the next day. I do not agree with any of these changes of the law to allow these permissive sexual activities to take place, but they have happened, and we can only live with the consequences.

So if they have done all these changes to the State laws already, then it would not surprise me if they have also made changes to the law permitting family incest I would still like to hear from any body that does have more definite information of these changes to the family law permitting incest between consenting adults.
Thank you.

It would seem an odd change to the law. The prohibition on incest really has nothing to do with morality, and everything to do with the health of any resulting child.

The risk of a genetic flaw manifesting itself as an illness in the child of an incestuous relationship is too high to be considered acceptable. The only exception is with some relationships (such as people in a step relationship - eg, step-sister and step-brother) that are deemed to be incest, but carry no additional biological risk.

One could of course argue that sexual intercourse these days does not have to lead to pregnancy, but some people would let it. Would we criminalise producing a child from an incestuous relationship, but not the relationship itself?

Sylvia.

BD, yet another swipe at "Make it up as you go morailty" while ignoring how much so of your own is make it up as you go. We've been over that before.

There are good biological reasons why society opposes incest between near relatives. I would also have concerns about the potential for abuse of power in "incest" situations not involving the biological issues (step kids being coached etc). The same kind of rational behind prohibiting certain professionals having a sexual relationship with a client.

R0bert

i heard about thid and i think it is wrong, they should not allow this, incest is still incest adult or not

To be sure , to be sure , but on wich legal principle would a ban
on incest rest exactly , as against the rights of consenting adults ??
hypothetical genetic defects are no bar on married life or de facto as
thing stand ,
you would have to do better than that , how about
" custom and traditions " it's suitably non religious !!

.

I suppose it really makes nonsense of having a law to prosecute people who are having an incestral relationship between 2 consenting adults, but there is no legal censorship to prevent caesural sex from occurring and the many unwanted pregnancies that result from them.

At least a marriage requires a lot of legal activity and there must be proof of who you really are and who your family is. At lest it does regulate relationships in our society to allow who gets married and the children that result from that marriage?

With casual sexual relationships and de facto relationships there are no legal censorship in place for the children that are born from these sexual relationships. So to have a law to discriminate against two consenting adults having an incestral relationship is ridicules to say the least. I suppose if a pregnancy should occur from an incest relationship, then just have an abortion and get rid of it.

.

on wich ground is monogamic heterosexual marriage the only norm ?
there are people out there who practice polygamy or ( rarely )
polyandry .
I'm not preaching for any system and am satisfied with the norm ,
but again ,
what are the legal grounds determining wich practice is blessed by
the law and wich one is frowned upon .

.