Analysis of Jeff Jacoby's Lawful Incest May Be on Its Way

Analysis of Jeff Jacoby's Lawful Incest May Be on Its Way

In his article "Lawful Incest May Be on Its Way," originally published in the on May 2, 2007, the author Jeff Jacoby starts off his essay with reminiscing on when he was invited to a talk show to talk about legalizing adult incest. He states that when he heard the topic it reminded him about a person named Rick Santorum who was a Senator who said that ""If the Supreme Court says you have the right to consensual sex within your home," he told a reporter, "then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.

Jacoby's thesis is strongly stated in the title. His thesis is simply: that incest is on the way of being legalized. Jacoby goes on to state events that lead to this conclusion. In the article he talked about an Ohio man who was convicted of incest with his 22-year-old stepdaughter. "Lowe has appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court, making Lawrence the basis of his argument. In Lawrence, the court had ruled that people "are entitled to respect for their private lives" and that under the 14th Amendment, "the state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime." If that was true for the adult homosexual behavior in Lawrence, why not for the adult incestuous behavior in the Ohio case?" His point is simply that courts should not be involved in sexual conduct in the home. If so then they must go across the board and legalize everything.

Jacoby is basically saying that all these events lead up to the notion of incest becoming legal. From Paul Lowe to Patrick and Susan Stubing and then to Allen and Patricia Muth. Each case has pushed the envelope whether on purpose or unintentionally to help make incest legal. Jacoby's closing paragraph restates his thesis. It is not stated the same way, but it implies the overall gist of the thesis. Jacoby says " Your reaction to the prospect of lawful incest may be "Ugh, gross." But personal repugnance is no replacement for moral standards. For more than 3,000 years, a code of conduct stretching back to Sinai has kept incest unconditionally beyond the pale. If sexual morality is jettisoned as a legitimate basis for legislation, personal opinion and cultural fashion are all that will remain. "Should Incest Be Legal?" Time asks. Expect more and more people to answer yes.