The need to re-evaluate incest in the age of assisted reproductive techniques: Stübing v Germany

The mention of the word ‘incest’ stirs a hornets’ nest of disapproval, this is regardless of whether the word is used in the context of non- consensual incest or consent by coercion in a family setting, or true consensual incest between adults.

In 1633 English Playwright, John Ford, wrote his most powerful and most often performed play “Tis Pity She’s a Whore” set in Parma, Italy. The play tells the story of a brother and his sister who embark on a sexual relationship. The play was deliberately provocative as incest was then, and still is, by virtue of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, illegal in England and Wales. Written as a tragedy of the first water- there was only one ending for this playwright to build in–namely death. A similar situation, with less a draconian, but similarly bitter end for the applicant, was the basis fors recent case heard at the European Court of Human Rights, of Stübing v Germany.