Incest could become legal in Switzerland, if the upper house of the Swiss parliament gets its way.
But the move has been met with outrage from politicians on all sides with one calling it “completely repugnant”.
The argument being put forward is that the current law banning incest is “obsolete”, since only three cases have been dealt with by the courts since 1984.
Abuse
The upper house is also keen to point out that children will still be protected by laws governing abuse and paedophilia.
A draft law has been framed, decriminalising sex between consenting family members, which will now be considered by the Government.
But Barbara Schmid Federer of the Christian People’s Party of Switzerland described the proposal as “completely repugnant”.
“I for one could not countenance painting out such a law from the statute books”, she said.
Genetic
And a spokesman from the Protestant People’s Party also condemned the move: “Murder is also quite rare in Switzerland but no-one suggests that we remove that as an offence from the statutes”, he said.
And both parties expressed concerns over the possible increase of genetic mutations in offspring as a result.
Notwithstanding these fears, Green MP and lawyer Daniel Vischer stated: “Incest is a difficult moral question, but not one that is answered by penal law.”
He also said that he saw nothing wrong with two consenting adults having sex, even if they were related.
Swiss justice minister Simonetta Sommaruga has yet to decide whether to implement the proposal.