Incest

INCEST, incest, a term for sexual relations between close relatives, prohibited by law. In former times, much was said about the harm of I. for offspring; the most severe diseases (cripples, idiots, deaf-mutes; mentally ill, blind) in offspring were considered a consequence of marriages between relatives; talk of the 'degeneration' of offspring due to I. of parents. As proof of the correctness of this view, they presented: 1) the prohibition of marriages between relatives, which since ancient times entered into the legislation of many peoples, thus the opinion about the harm of such marriages formed in the historical experience of peoples; 2) the high percentage of marriages between relatives among severe chronic patients. The conviction that I. supposedly leads to the degeneration of offspring has been reflected in the customs and legislation of most peoples concerning marriage. Already in ancient times, I. was prohibited by law of Manu (Hindus), Moses (more tolerant prohibitions) and among the Germans before their adoption of Christianity. The view of the ancient Greeks on I. as a qualified crime is reflected in the myth of Oedipus. On the other hand, it should be noted that in ancient times, marriages between relatives were not prohibited everywhere: many ancient cultural peoples did not know such a prohibition, and among some, marriages between relatives were customary to maintain the quality of noble families; among Egyptians, Persians, in Peru, among Mexican Indians and many others, not only marriages between brothers and sisters were not prohibited, but also marriages between father and daughter, mother and son. Marriages between relatives often occurred among Egyptian pharaohs. In the Ptolemaic dynasty for 13 generations, marriages were concluded between brothers and sisters; the famous Cleopatra came from a marriage between brother and sister. The Incas of Peru for 14 generations married brothers and sisters, and 'degeneration' did not occur. Modern data from biology and genetics force a skeptical attitude toward traditionally strict views on I. King for 25 generations mated rats from the same pair, obtaining 25,000 rats, and saw no degeneration. Castle bred Drosophila for 59 generations in the closest kinship without any harmful consequences. In relation to plants and animals, it can be considered established that inbreeding (see) does not have a harmful effect on offspring. In medicine, various data are presented about the influence of marriages between relatives on offspring; for example, Lenz in cases of deaf-mutism finds up to 7% of marriages between relatives of deaf-mutes, and Boudin - even 28%; with retinitis pigmentosa, the percentage of marriages between relatives reaches 27. Mayet investigated in this respect 16,416 mentally ill patients in psychiatric institutions of Prussia, dividing all mentally ill patients into those with hereditary predisposition and those without, and compared the figures of marriages between relatives among them with the figure of marriages between relatives in the entire population of Prussia. In the population of Prussia, marriages between relatives occur in 6.47%. Among mentally ill patients without hereditary predisposition, marriages between relatives occurred in 3%, among epileptics - in 2.9%, among idiots - in 11.5%; with hereditary predisposition in mental diseases - in 14.2%, in epilepsy - in 11.7%, in idiocy - in 21.6%. Mayet came to the conclusion that I. in general plays a very small role in the origin of disease (out of 16,416 mentally ill patients, only 237 turned out to come from marriages between relatives, and in all of Prussia there are up to 2 million people coming from such marriages). At present, thanks to knowledge of the laws of heredity (see Mendelism, Genetics), it has become clear that if there are predispositions to any disease in the family in a hidden recessive state, then with marriages between relatives, the possibility of their transition to a homozygous state, the possibility of the manifestation of the disease, is created. With the comparative rarity of such predispositions in the population, these diseases naturally manifest themselves mainly in marriages between relatives, since in other cases the meeting of two recessive heterozygotes with this trait is rarely possible. 'The frequency of marriages between relatives among parents is expected to be the more frequent, the rarer this recessive trait occurs in the population' (Lenz). Roman law distinguished: 1) incestus juris gentium (sexual relations between relatives in the ascending and descending line, then between brothers and sisters); 2) incestus juris civilis (sexual relations between persons to whom, according to Roman laws, marriage was not permitted). Among wild tribes, I. was sometimes permitted and sometimes prohibited. According to some ethnographers (Alberti, Fritsch), customary law, which prescribes that a daughter-in-law avoid ascending relatives of the husband, and a son-in-law avoid ascending relatives of the wife, is also explained by the desire to prevent I. This custom is practiced among Yakuts, Ostyaks, Mongols, Buryats, Kalmyks, Indians, Chinese, Negroes and others. Mohammedanism also prohibits I. between blood relatives up to the 4th degree (generations). In the Middle Ages, canonical law initially considered I. to be sexual relations at all degrees of kinship and affinity, 'as long as they can be traced.' Later (1216) under Innocent III, the limit of I. was restricted. Many modern legislations consider I. as an independent crime, but at the same time narrow the degree of kinship and affinity, in the presence of which it is punishable. In particular, according to the German criminal code, I. between relatives and affines (for example, father-in-law and daughter-in-law) in the ascending and descending line, as well as between brothers and sisters, is punishable by imprisonment in a correctional arrest house for up to 5 years or in prison for up to 2 years. In Austria (1919), for I. between relatives in the ascending and descending line, imprisonment from 6 months to 1 year is provided. In France during the Great French Revolution, I. was excluded from the number of punishable acts. The Code pénal of 1810 also does not mention it. The law of 1863 provides for certain cases of I., but only as a condition that increases the punishment. According to the later Code civil (1921), marriage is prohibited 1) between all relatives and affines in the ascending and descending line and in the collateral line up to the 2nd degree (for example, brother and sister); 2) between uncle and niece, aunt and nephew. According to the criminal codes of Belgium and Holland, I. has the significance of an aggravating circumstance in cases of rape and others. In America, in all states, marriages between relatives up to the 2nd degree (brothers and sisters, parents and children, uncles and nieces) are prohibited; marriages between first cousins are not permitted only in half of all states, in some few states the prohibition of marriages between relatives is even broader. Prohibited marriages are considered invalid. In some states, this is where the matter ends; in some, a fine of 100 to 500-1,000 dollars and even imprisonment is imposed. According to the Russian Statute on Punishments (1885), for I. between relatives in the direct ascending and descending line without restriction of degrees, in case of extramarital cohabitation, severe punishment was provided: the guilty were subject to exile to remote places of Siberia and solitary imprisonment there for 6 years and 8 months, and after the expiration of this term, men were imprisoned for life in a monastery for forced labor. Women were subject to exile to one of the remote districts of Eastern Siberia. I. in the collateral line up to the 4th degree (generation) of kinship and up to the 2nd degree of affinity was punished more mildly. In case of marital cohabitation, I. was punished as such if the spouses knowingly entered into marriage in the 1st and 2nd degrees of kinship. A marriage between affines and all other relatives was considered an independent crime. According to the current Soviet legislation (Code of Laws on Marriage, Family and Guardianship, ed. 1929, art. 6), marriages between relatives in the direct ascending or descending line, as well between full-blooded (father and mother common) and half-blooded (father common, but mothers different and vice versa) brothers and sisters are not registered. Art. 88 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (ed. 1929) states: 'Concealment of circumstances preventing marriage, as well as providing false information to authorities registering civil status acts,' entails 'deprivation of liberty or forced labor for a term of up to one year or a fine of up to 1,000 rubles.' But marriages between relatives increase not only pathological, but also healthy homozygosity; marriages between relatives, as Ribo pointed out long ago, 'carry strengthening and consolidation of all the traits of parents.' Therefore, most modern authors hold the opinion that marriages between relatives in themselves have neither good nor bad influence: everything depends on the qualities of the relatives being joined. 'From a marriage of good with good, nothing bad can possibly result, and conversely, from a marriage of bad with bad, twice as bad results' (Strohmayer). It is therefore quite natural that modern eugenics is very interested in the degree of kinship of the marrying parties and studies their hereditary traits independently of kinship, striving to give a prognosis of the combination of hereditary properties and prevent bad combinations. V. Vladimirsky, T. Yudin. I. as a biological concept does not exist: it is a purely legal term corresponding in animal husbandry and biology to 'linebreeding'.

Strangely enough, we still do not clearly know the reason for the appearance of sex and the significance of amphimixis (mixing of parental plasms), but we must pay attention to the fact that in nature, both in plants and animals, there is a whole series of adaptations that prevent such incestuous fertilization. In plants - dioeciousness and cross-fertilization by means of insects. On the other hand, hermaphroditic forms of animals, with extremely rare exceptions, never self-fertilize. In this case, this is prevented either by the location of the sex glands and copulatory apparatus, or by the simultaneous maturation of the sex glands of one sex or the other, and in the absence of these relationships, the egg of the same individual is completely immune to the sperm of the same individual (ascidians). In recent years, a number of genetic studies have clarified the role of inbreeding in plants and animals (see Inbreeding).