Mr. Singer was mislead by someone.

Jan Hartman has not discussed THAT question. He only hinted at the views of the German Ethics Council. He used THAT question to present his weird views and to call to change the law.



He published his views at September 29 on blog run by Polityka. Polityka is a social liberal weekly magazine established in 1957. Next day this text was remowed from the site. Here it is archived: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?ie=ISO-8859-2&hl=pl&source=hp&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fhartman.blog.polityka.pl%2F2014%2F09%2F28%2Fupadek-kazirodczego-tabu%2F&gbv=1



The loudest objections was expressed by his colleagues from the far left, anti-clerical and cultural liberal party Twój Ruch, previously known as Ruch Palikota. Jan Hartman told about this in interview "Moi wrogowie z Twojego Ruchu rozpętali tę aferę!" which means "My enemies from Twój Ruch unleashed this affair!" for tabloid Super Express on October 9: http://www.se.pl/wydarzenia/kraj/prof-hartman-moi-wrogowie-z-twojego-ruchu-rozpetali-te-afere-wideo_427174.html



At October 1 board of Twój Ruch decided to expeled Hartman from party by a ratio vote 7 to 1. http://palikot.blog.onet.pl/2014/10/01/rozstanie-z-prof-janem-hartmanem/



I think it's very meaningfull that the board of Polityka magazine and Twój Ruch party leadership dissociated themselves from a views presented by Jan Hartman. I think it's obvious that this views couldn't be only "discussing that question".



Here you have short write-up and some quotes from Hartman's publication "Upadek kazirodczego tabu?", which means "Fall of the incest taboo?":



At first Jan Hartman writes of a incest theme in movies and literature. He call one of the movie "odważny", that is brave, and the second "jeden z moich ulubionych obrazów", that is one of his favourite picture, and he places lyrics from a song and from a poem.



Then he deliberetas about two - knows for him - reasons to prohibition incest. Both of them - in his opinion - should be rejected. The risk of child with genetic defects he rejects, because effective contraception. Next he throw out reasons "natury religijnej i obyczajowej", that is of tradition and religious nature. There is no questions or doubts here. He made it very clear:



"W wolnym społeczeństwie nie wymagamy już od nikogo, aby w życiu prywatnym praktykował takie czy inne obyczaje, a od tego czy owego się powstrzymywał. Zgorszenie możliwe jest tylko co najwyżej publicznie."



Which means:



"In a free society we do not require to practice customs in some form or other in his private life, and we do not require to restrain from this or that. Depravity is possible only, at the most, in the public."



"Cóż, „naturalny porządek rzeczy” to w najlepszym razie pojęcie zaczerpnięte z pewnej doktryny metafizyczno-religijnej. Byłoby nieuczciwe i nieracjonalne, gdyby stanowiono restrykcyjne prawo w oparciu o zabytkowe doktryny o czysto spekulatywnym charakterze. Wprawdzie dawniej tak czyniono (czego pamiątką jest mi.in. zakaz kazirodztwa), lecz to znowu żaden argument. Złe obyczaje i tradycje w stanowieniu prawa trzeba zwalczać, a nie pielęgnować."



Which means:



"Well, "the natural order of things" is, at best, a concept taken from some metaphysical-religious doctrine. Would be unfair and unreasonable to establish restrictive law on the basis of the historic doctrine of the purely speculative character. Though formerly it was done (prohibition of incest is a keepsake among other things), but it is again no argument. Bad customs and traditions in lawmaking must be fought, not cultivate."



Then he cites some statistics (without source), and he moves to unambiguous praise of incest reletions:



"Jeśli udaje się powiązać harmonijnie miłość macierzyńską albo bratersko-siostrzaną z miłością erotyczną, to osiąga się nową, wyższą jakość miłości i związku. Być może piękna miłość brata i siostry jest czymś wyższym niż najwznioślejszy romans niespokrewnionych ze sobą ludzi?"



Which means:



"If you manage to tie harmoniously motherly, brotherly or sisterly love with passion, you reaches a new, higher quality of love and relationship. Maybe the beauty of the love of brother and sister is much higher than most sublime romance of unrelated people?"



He is convinced that incest improve relations: "NEW, HIGHER QUALITY OF LOVE AND RELATIONSHIP". He speculate that there is nothing better than incest. I wonder why he pass over paternal love in this list? Maybe because he didn't want to draw suspicion on himself?



At the end he conclude that incest is wrong just because our law say so.



"Swoją drogą, jeśli najczęściej są toksyczne, to raczej dlatego, że są zakazane, a nie odwrotnie."



Which means:



"By the way, if they are most often toxic [incestuous relationship], it's because they are forbidden, not vice versa."



That is the statement of moral philosopher. Something is wrong, because THEY told us it is wrong and now we think so.



Jan Hartman made a fool of himself. Now he moans that in Poland one can not have his own views on things, that he became the subject of a brutal smear campaign and with-hunt. And he threatens that he will be sue for defamation. Hilarious guy!