German Man Who Had Four Children With Sister Jailed

[liberalpragmatist]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9994652/

Siblings began living together as a couple in 2001

LEIPZIG, Germany - A German court sentenced a man who had four children by his younger sister to 2-1/2 years in prison for incest on Thursday.

The pair, identified by German media as 28-year-old Patrick S. and 21-year-old Susan K., grew up separately, spending periods with foster parents and did not meet until 2000.

The court ordered Susan K. to be placed into the care of social services. Prosecutors had not sought a prison sentence for her because she had learning difficulties.

The children — born in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005, according to newspapers — were also put into care.

<snip>

Defense lawyer Joachim Froemling said he might appeal to the constitutional court, calling the offense of incest a “historical relic” as outdated as previous laws against adultery and homosexuality.

***

Ewww. I hope the children don't suffer for this however.

[politicat]

1. The kids will probably be fine.

Genetically, sibling pairs are nearly as safe as cousin pairings, and those only become dangerous when there are multiple generations that have engaged in them. As long as their parents weren't closely related, they're probably fine.

Too bad for the parents, though. They aren't culturally siblings, so the taboo is much harder for them to recognize.

[HockeyMom]

4. I work at a Mental Health Agency

two of our clients are the products of conceptions between first cousins. Apart my from the mental decifiicenes, the phhisical deformites of both indiviudals are mind boggling.

[liberalpragmatist]

7. Actually first-cousin couplings aren't THAT bad

Not that I intend to. And they're about twice as likely as the children of unrelated parents to be doubly-recessive for lethal or deformative alleles. However, the overall probability is estimated to be about 3%, versus 1.5% for unrelated parents.

Actually, my great-grandparents on one side were first cousins. It's still quite common in much of the world and wasn't uncommon in the West until quite recently.

[bbinacan]

10. If I'm not mistaken

weren't FDR and Eleanor first cousins?

[AussieDave]

12. No - they were fifth cousins

Eleanor's uncle was Teddy Roosevelt.

[politicat]

11. But how many of your clients are the product of non-related pairings?

The rest, right? (I work in mental health, too, and the vast, vast majority of clients are not from familial pairings.)

It's a genetic dice roll every time people conceive. 3 in 200 will have genetic defects without having related parents.

Not to belittle the damaged children you do have, but I would bet that the community from which they come from and the environment in which they were born are at least as responsible for any defects. If the community is "close-knit" (i.e. everyone's related to everyone else) and the economy ends up being polluting in nature... defects are going to happen.

Founders' Syndrome.

[liberalpragmatist]

6. I meant just psychologically

I realize that they'll probably be fine genetically.

[politicat]

8. They'll probably be as okay as any children taken out of the home

at an early age and put in foster care.

Interpret that as you will.

[musiclawyer]

2. The State has an interest in not allowing this type of thing

I suppose the sentence can be considered lenient because of the circumstances. But facts are, once he knew, he should have zipped it.

[mandyky]

3. Who was caring for the 21 year old when she met her brother?

She wasn't 21 then, by my math 5 years ago she'd have been 17.
Did her "foster" family just dispose of her to her brother?

I realize technically this was incest, but they had never met until 2000. Something sounds fishy, to me.

[KingFlorez]

5. Yech

Freepers in trailer parks ought to know something about this

[eggman67]

9. Watch the RW jump on this part

Defense lawyer Joachim Froemling said he might appeal to the constitutional court, calling the offense of incest a “historical relic” as outdated as previous laws against adultery and homosexuality.

Does this not echo Santorum?

[WinkyDink]

13. Well, it worked for the ancient Egyptians!

Calm down! I'm an only child!

[UndergroundRadical]

14. What they're doing is very wrong

Putting this man in prison will not cure him of his mental and psychological problems. This man needs professional help in an asylum. It's a damn shame they're going down the road that we do here by treating mental patients as sane and evil criminals.