Switzerland to vote on bizarre law to make incest legal between adults



Switzerland is considering a repeal its incest laws to make sexual relations between family members legal.

It claims the law is 'obsolete' and that the courts have dealt with just three cases since 1984.

The upper house of the Swiss parliament has drafted a law de-criminalising sex between adult consenting family members which must now be considered by the government.

Any two consenting adults, even if they are father and daughter or siblings, would be free to have a consenting sexual relationship

Swiss MP Daniel Vischer said he saw nothing wrong with two consenting adults having sex, even if related

Switzerland, which recently held a referendum passing a draconian law that will boot out foreigners convicted of committing the smallest of crimes, insists that children within families will continue to be protected by laws governing abuse and paedophlia.

Politicians of both the left and right are outraged at the suggested change. But Green party MP and lawyer Daniel Vischer said he saw nothing wrong with two consenting adults having sex, even if they were related.

He added; 'Incest is a difficult moral question, but not one that is answered by penal law.'



But Barbara Schmid Federer of The Christian People’s Party of Switzerland said the proposal from the upper house was 'completely repugnant.'

'I for one could not countenance painting out such a law from the statute books.'



The Protestant People’s Party is also opposed to decriminalising the offence which at present carries a maximum three year jail term.

A spokesman for the party said; 'Murder is also quite rare in Switzerland but no-one suggests that we remove that as an office from the statutes.'

The Swiss parliament and government in Berne will decide if the ban on incest should be repealed

Both parties also echoed concerns of rising incest if it was decriminalised, possibly leading to more genetic mutations among the population as a result.

Some members of the Swiss People’s Party are calling for the proposed amendment to be struck down immediately and for incest laws to actually be beefed up - calling, for example, for a prohibition on cousins having sexual relations and marrying.

Justice minister Simonetta Sommaruga has yet to decide whether to implement the proposal.