The European Court decided that the prohibition of filial love (aka incest) is legitimate. A young man from Saxony (in Germany) had filed the complaint. He sired four children by his sister; two are handicapped. He is currently serving three years of his prison sentence.
Siblings have medically speaking a high risk of begetting a handicapped child. That is also one of the reasons for the incest article in the Criminal Code. According to some lawyers, this contradicts the spirit of the law concerning equal treatment. “In such a case, it should also be forbidden for handicapped people to become offspring,” one of them stated. Really?!
For now, prohibiting sibling love is not infringing on anyone's Human Rights. As such, the young German father is correctly serving three years in jail.
The sister (and ex-lover) of the father does not want to have anything to do with her brother. “It’s OK that incest is a felony,” she said. “I don’t have any guilt. I was very young and wanted to be loved. But I would never do it again. I do not want to have to deal with my brother ever again.”
The 28-year old mother denies that she is fighting the 35-year old father for custody of their 6-year old daughter. The girl is the only of the four incest children still living with the mother.
"We only communicate via our lawyers. There are no visiting rights; he is not allowed to visit our daughter. She also does not want to see him," declared the mother. "I do not want another fight about my kids. I do not want Social Services to also take away my youngest." Her three other children are being raised by foster families.
As a lawyer and a human being, I personally applaud the decision of the European Court – not in the least for the well-being of the children....