DER SPIEGEL March 13, 2008Sibling Sex Remains Prosecutable in Germany
Germany's high court ruled on Thursday that laws against incest do not violate the constitution. The ruling means that a man in a high-profile national incest case will soon be sent to prison for siring four children with his sister.
Siblings Patrick und Susan K. have had four children together. Patrick now faces an extended prison sentence.
Germany's Constitutional Court, the country's highest judicial body, ruled on Thursday that incest in Germany violates the country's Basic Law. The judges rejected a petition by Patrick K. to overturn previous incest convictions
According to paragraph 173 of the German Criminal Code, sexual relations between siblings is punishable by a fine or up to two years in prison. That law, the Karlsruhe court ruled on Thursday, is in accordance with the federal constitution.
In its ruling, the court stated legislators had not overreached their jurisdiction with laws that "protect the family order by punishing the damaging effects of incest." The inferior partner in such cases, the court said, must be protected. The court also stated that children spawned through incest had an increased risk of suffering from severe genetic damage.
The court's vice president, Winfred Hassemer, offered the sole dissent -- saying he felt the punishment must be commensurate with the offense, and that this went too far. "Much speaks for the fact that the regulation in its current state is based exclusively on moral beliefs rather than with the objective of legal protection."
Thursday's decision marks the end of an appeal by 30-year-old Patrick K., a resident of the eastern German city of Leipzig who fathered four children together with his sister. With the ruling, he will now have to serve a two-and-a-half year prison sentence.
Patrick S. and his 23-year-old sister Susan K. grew up in separate households. Patrick, seven years her senior, grew up in orphanages and foster homes, and the two first became acquainted after he had sought out his birth mother in 2000. At the time, Patrick was 23 and Susan 16. Susan would later give birth to the pair's four children, sparking investigations that resulted in several incest convictions.
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