Patrick Stuebing
Encyclopedia
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 only healthy child, remains with the couple. The older two children suffer from severe physical and mental disabilities. The third child was born with a heart condition but is healthy after undergoing a heart transplant. All three were placed in foster care.
Stuebing, an unemployed locksmith, was adopted at age 3 due to physical violence from his father and, as a child, lived in Potsdam
. He did not meet his mother and biological family until he was 23. According to Stuebing, the relationship between his sister and himself had been nothing but platonic, until their mother's death six months later. From then onwards, he and Karolewski continued living together and became intimately close. Karolewski has been described as mentally subnormal and was sixteen at the time of giving birth to the first child. The relationship was discovered when their first child was born and a nurse suspected Stuebing was the father of his sister's child, and contacted the police. During his two-year prison sentence for committing incest, Karolewski had a short relationship with an unknown man who claimed to be her boyfriend and had another child with him, which she gave up rights to once her brother was released from prison. She claims that the other man was a brief fling and she would rather be with her own brother. Today Stuebing and Karolewski share a small flat in an east German tower block on the outskirts of Leipzig.
Incest
is a criminal offence in Germany. Patrick Stuebing has already served a two-year sentence for committing incest and there is another jail term looming if paragraph 173 of the legal code is not overturned. Karowleski was sentenced to probation because she was a minor when the sexual relationship began. Under Germany's criminal code which dates back to 1871, vaginal sex between siblings or between (grand-) parent and child is a crime, punishable by up to three years in prison: disabilities caused by inbreeding are viewed as deliberately inflicted bodily injury to the child. The couple's lawyer has argued that the law is "out of date" and "breaches the couple's civil rights".
In 2004, Patrick Stuebing voluntarily underwent a vasectomy
.
The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
upheld, on March 13, 2008, a law that makes incest a criminal offense, rejecting the appeal by Stuebing.
Stuebing, an unemployed locksmith, was adopted at age 3 due to physical violence from his father and, as a child, lived in Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
. He did not meet his mother and biological family until he was 23. According to Stuebing, the relationship between his sister and himself had been nothing but platonic, until their mother's death six months later. From then onwards, he and Karolewski continued living together and became intimately close. Karolewski has been described as mentally subnormal and was sixteen at the time of giving birth to the first child. The relationship was discovered when their first child was born and a nurse suspected Stuebing was the father of his sister's child, and contacted the police. During his two-year prison sentence for committing incest, Karolewski had a short relationship with an unknown man who claimed to be her boyfriend and had another child with him, which she gave up rights to once her brother was released from prison. She claims that the other man was a brief fling and she would rather be with her own brother. Today Stuebing and Karolewski share a small flat in an east German tower block on the outskirts of Leipzig.
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...
is a criminal offence in Germany. Patrick Stuebing has already served a two-year sentence for committing incest and there is another jail term looming if paragraph 173 of the legal code is not overturned. Karowleski was sentenced to probation because she was a minor when the sexual relationship began. Under Germany's criminal code which dates back to 1871, vaginal sex between siblings or between (grand-) parent and child is a crime, punishable by up to three years in prison: disabilities caused by inbreeding are viewed as deliberately inflicted bodily injury to the child. The couple's lawyer has argued that the law is "out of date" and "breaches the couple's civil rights".
In 2004, Patrick Stuebing voluntarily underwent a vasectomy
Vasectomy
Vasectomy is a surgical procedure for male sterilization and/or permanent birth control. During the procedure, the vasa deferentia of a man are severed, and then tied/sealed in a manner such to prevent sperm from entering into the seminal stream...
.
The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
The Federal Constitutional Court is a special court established by the Grundgesetz, the German basic law...
upheld, on March 13, 2008, a law that makes incest a criminal offense, rejecting the appeal by Stuebing.