Consensual Incest

In a news story out of Clovis, New Mexico, a thirty-six year-old woman was reunited with her nineteen year-old son. He had been put up for adoption shortly after birth. Somehow, they ended up kissing and they liked it, so they advanced their relationship sexually. The state has now issued a no contact order and is threatening them with 18 months in jail if they violate the order. The couple says they won’t let anything, even jail, come between them and their love for one another. There has been a lot of controversy about this relationship, and the resulting state order and threat of imprisonment.

Taking an objective look at this and setting aside personal and cultural bias, there is no victim and as a result there is no crime. When two consenting adults enter into a consensual relationship it is their business and their business alone. Those who do not agree with the relationship can exercise their right to free association and choose not to associate with those people, but it is not appropriate to threaten them with force in an attempt to coercively end their relationship.

Much of the opposition in this story comes from people who claim their relationship is nasty, gross, or unnatural. Some have even gone so far as to call it an abomination. These arguments are very similar to something that interracial couples would have heard prior to the 1960's and even later in some areas. Another group who similar arguments are made against even to this day is the LGBT community. Being nasty, gross, unnatural, or even an abomination should not be sufficient cause for the government man with a gun to come and forcefully take you and lock you in a cage, but that is exactly what is being done and publicly celebrated at this time.