Gay first now: Incest should should be legal, says German government’s Ethics Council

Incest laws could be scrapped in Germany after the government's ethics council said sex between brothers and sisters should be legal and is a 'fundamental right'.

The council recommended that the right of 'adult siblings to sexual self-determination' was more important then the 'abstract idea of protection of the family'.

It comes after the case of Patrick Stuebing, who was jailed for more than three years after having four children - two of which are disabled - with his sister Susan Karolewski.

The German Ethics Council has suggested that sex between brothers and sisters should be legalised

Stuebing was put up for adoption as a toddler and only met his sister when he was 24 and she was 16. He was imprisoned for incest in 2008.

He made an unsuccessful appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in 2012 over his right to a family life - as he and Ms Karolewski were split up and three of their children were taken into care. The youngest was allowed to remain with Ms Karolewski.

The German Ethics Council said in a statement that 'criminal law is not the appropriate means to preserve a social taboo', adding that the risk of disability to children is enough to warrant incest being illegal.

The suggestion of decriminalising incest comes after the case of Patrick Stuebing, who was jailed for more than three years after having four children - two of which are disabled - with his sister Susan Karolewski

'Neither the consequences for the family nor the possibility for descendants from such incestuous relationships can justify a ban under criminal law,' it said.

'Incest between siblings appears to be very rare in Western societies according to the available data but those affected describe how difficult their situation is in light of the threat of punishment.

THE INCESTUOUS RELATIONSHIP WHICH COULD CHANGE THE LAW

Patrick Stuebing, born in Leipzig, Germany in 1977, was fostered at the age of three after being attacked with a knife by his alcoholic father, and did not meet his mother or sister again until he was 23.

He says his relationship with Susan Karolewski became incestuous six months after their mother died from a heart attack in 2001, and Ms Karolewski gave birth to their first child in October of that year, when she was 16.

Two of their children have severe mental and physical disabilities, and another has a heart condition which required a transplant.

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