The report came after Patrick Stuebing had four children with his half sister (Picture: YouTube)

A major advisor to the German government has recommended that incest should no longer be criminalised.

The German Ethics Council said that although sex between siblings is a social taboo, ‘the consequences cannot justify a ban under criminal law’.

Its 90-page report was in response to case which made headlines across the country. A brother and his half-sister, who was eight years his junior, conceived four children – two of whom were disabled.

Patrick Stuebing was then jailed for three years after the courts ruled that the relationship was illegal.


The council wrote: ‘The right of adult siblings to sexual self-determination in a consensual relationship weighs heavier in these cases than the abstract good of the family.’



Dr Michael Wunder, a psychotherapist who sits on the GEC, defended its recommendations – and insisted it does not endorse the decriminalisation of sex between parents and their children.

Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker, a member of the ruling CDU party, has rejected the council’s findings – and warned that ‘the legalisation of incest among siblings would send a wrong signal’.