Accidental incest
Encyclopedia
Accidental incest is incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...

 that is committed by two partners who do not know they are biologically related. It can occur when two people who are unaware of their biological relationship become sexually intimate, or between siblings who share a room and partake in sexual exploration ("Playing doctor"). When two related people meet as adults, and become sexually attracted, it is known as genetic sexual attraction
Genetic sexual attraction
Genetic sexual attraction is a term that describes the phenomenon of sexual attraction between close relatives, such as siblings, first and second cousins or a parent and offspring, who first meet as adults.- History and definition :...

.

Causes

A common cause is believed to be artificial insemination
Artificial insemination
Artificial insemination, or AI, is the process by which sperm is placed into the reproductive tract of a female for the purpose of impregnating the female by using means other than sexual intercourse or natural insemination...

 with donated sperm
Sperm donation
Sperm donation is the provision by a man, , of his sperm, with the intention that it be used to impregnate a woman who is not usually the man's sexual partner, in order to produce a child....

. Since sperm donation is often anonymous, many people conceived by donated sperm are unaware of biological half siblings they have. The likelihood of accidental incest is kept low by having doctors each use a minimal number of sperm from each donor. Some countries have laws limiting the number of children a donor can father in order to reduce the likelihood. Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 allows those conceived by artificial means to receive testing to determine if they are related to a person they are considering marrying.

Other causes may include:
  • Family members separated at birth
  • Child abandonment
    Child abandonment
    Child abandonment is the practice of relinquishing interests and claims over one's offspring with the intent of never again resuming or reasserting them. Causes include many social and cultural factors as well as mental illness. An abandoned child is called a foundling .-Causes:Poverty is often a...

  • Sexual exploration between brothers and sisters sharing a bedroom.
  • Alcohol abuse
    Alcohol abuse
    Alcohol abuse, as described in the DSM-IV, is a psychiatric diagnosis describing the recurring use of alcoholic beverages despite negative consequences. Alcohol abuse eventually progresses to alcoholism, a condition in which an individual becomes dependent on alcoholic beverages in order to avoid...


Notable cases

  • In 2008, it was reported that a British brother and sister who were twins separated at birth married without knowing of their relationship. According to the report, the relationship was discovered soon after their wedding, and the marriage was annulled. The case has raised the issue regarding whether adoptions should be kept secret.. Concerns have been raised however about whether the story is in fact true.
  • Although not exactly accidental, a famous German case has opened doors to the legalization of accidental incest. Patrick Stuebing
    Patrick Stuebing
    Patrick Stuebing is a man living in Leipzig, Germany, who has recently been the centre of a heated debate around incest, due to his relationship with his biological sister, Susan Karolewski, since 2001. The relationship has so far produced four children: Eric, Sarah, Nancy, and Sofia. Sofia, the...

     has had 4 children with his sister Susan Karolewski whom he met as an adult, serving prison time in Germany where incest is illegal.


Dramatic depictions of accidental incest

  • In the classic Athenian
    Classical Athens
    The city of Athens during the classical period of Ancient Greece was a notable polis of Attica, Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Hippias...

     tragedy
    Tragedy
    Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

     Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
    Sophocles
    Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...

    , Oedipus
    Oedipus
    Oedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. He fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother, and thus brought disaster on his city and family...

    , king of Thebes
    Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)
    See Thebes, Greece for the modern city built on the ancient ruins.Ancient Thebes was a Boeotian city-state , situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain...

    , is told by a prophet that he will murder his father and marry his mother. Oedipus considers the possibility ridiculous and argues vehemently with the prophet. His wife Jocasta
    Jocasta
    In Greek mythology, Jocasta, also known as Jocaste , Epikastê, or Iokastê was a daughter of Menoeceus and Queen consort of Thebes, Greece. She was the wife of Laius. Wife and mother of Oedipus by Laius, and both mother and grandmother of Antigone, Eteocles, Polynices and Ismene by Oedipus...

    , widow of the former king Laius
    Laius
    In Greek mythology, King Laius, or Laios of Thebes was a divine hero and key personage in the Theban founding myth. Son of Labdacus, he was raised by the regent Lycus after the death of his father.-Abduction of Chrysippus:...

    , urges Oedipus to ignore the prophet, reminding Oedipus that Laius was actually killed by bandits at a crossroads on the way to Delphi
    Delphi
    Delphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...

    . It is eventually disclosed to Oedipus that as a baby he had been given up for adoption in an attempt to evade the prophecy that he would one day kill his own father. Oedipus suddenly realizes that the prophecy had indeed been fulfilled: he had quarreled with some travelers at a crossroads and slain them. One of them, he realizes. was Laius, his biological father whom he had never known, and that by marrying Laius' widow Jocasta, he had married his biological mother. Jocasta hangs herself and the despairing Oedipus also intends to commit suicide, but eventually takes pins from the dress of his dead wife and uses them to poke out his eyes.

  • In a third season episode of House
    House (TV series)
    House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...

    , the team treats a married couple, Jeremy and Tracy
    Fools for Love
    "Fools for Love" is the fifth episode of the third season of House and the fifty-first episode overall.-Plot:A young interracial couple is hospitalized after the husband, Jeremy, attacks robbers who threaten his wife, Tracy. Her airways close and she collapses, apparently experiencing anaphylaxis....

    , for similar symptoms. During treatment, the couple likens themselves to Romeo and Juliet
    Romeo and Juliet
    Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

    , as the Jeremy's father had forbidden him from becoming involved with Tracy while they were teenagers, citing various reasons. When the team is able to diagnose both Jeremy and Tracy of a rare hereditary condition, it is revealed that the true reason Jeremy's father was opposed to their union was an affair he had had with Tracy's mother, which resulted in Tracy's birth, thus making them half-siblings.

  • In the sixth season of NCIS
    NCIS (TV series)
    NCIS, formerly known as NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S...

     on CBS
    CBS
    CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

    , the Heartland episode begins with a savage assault on two corporals, killing one and leaving the other, Corporal Ethan LaCombe, seriously injured. The NCIS investigation takes the team to Stillwater, Pennsylvania
    Stillwater, Pennsylvania
    Stillwater is a borough in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 194 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Bloomsburg–Berwick Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Stillwater is located at ....

    , which happens to be Gibbs' home town. A powerful local industrialist, Charles Winslow, has been strongly opposed to LaCombe's interest in his daughter, Emily, which suggests that he might be in some way connected with the assault. DNA tests intended to help identify his assailant disclose a shocking fact: LaCombe is actually Charles Winslow's biological son. He opposed LaCombe's love interest with his daughter because, as only he knew until the NCIS investigation found it out, they were actually brother and sister.

  • In the Dollanganger series by V.C. Andrews, Christopher and Corrine, the parents of the main character Cathy and her three siblings, are revealed to have been half-uncle and niece, but never learn that they are also half-brother and sister. Corrine's father, Malcolm, is Christopher's older half-brother by the same father. Christopher's mother, Alicia, was later raped by Malcolm and became pregnant with Corrine. To prevent a scandel, Corrine was passed off as the child of Malcolm and his wife, and told that she is simply Christopher's niece. When they met for the first time as teenagers, they fell in love and eloped after their relationship was discovered. They eventually married and four children together by the start of Flowers in the Attic
    Flowers in the Attic
    Flowers in the Attic is a 1979 novel by Virginia Andrews. It is the first book in the Dollanganger Series, and was followed by Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and Garden of Shadows. The novel is written in the first person from the point of view of Cathy Dollanganger...

    .

  • In King of the Hill
    King of the Hill
    King of the Hill is an American animated dramedy series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, that ran from January 12, 1997, to May 6, 2010, on Fox network. It centers on the Hills, a working-class Methodist family in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas...

     Joseph Gribble is revealed to have a half-sister, due to his mother, Nancy Gribble's, affairs with John Redcorn
    John Redcorn
    John Redcorn III , is a character in the animated series King of the Hill. He is addressed or referred to as "John Redcorn" or "Mr...

    , who also cheated on her around the time with another woman, thus giving birth to his half-sister Kate, the two share a brief relationship, although do not share anything sexually.
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