There are people out there, the youth wing of the Swedish Liberal People’s Party argues, who want to have sex with their siblings (provided that they are at an age of consent). There are also people out there, this same group wants you to know, that would like to have sex with the dead. And you know what? Apparently, at least the Stockholm branch of the party is cool with that. In fact, they’ve just voted on a motion to repeal laws that forbid incest and necrophilia.
If this sounds disgusting to you — and it probably does — you’re not alone. But Cecilia Johnsson, president of LUF Stockholm, says that just because some people don’t think something is right and moral doesn’t mean it should be illegal. “I understand that [incest] can be considered unusual and disgusting,” she said, “but the law cannot stem from it being disgusting.” According to her, the current laws on the books are protecting no one and may in fact be criminalizing people for consensual sex, something that an Austrian couple profiled by Vice earlier this year knows a lot about.
But if incest is already too controversial, then you’re going to be a little more upset about the next tidbit of legislation the party’s trying to get through: sexual activities with corpses (provided, of course, that those corpses consented before they were rendered non-living). From The Independent:
Ms. Johnsson said: “You should get to decide what happens to your body after you die, and if it happens to be that someone wants to bequeath their body to a museum or for research, or if they want to bequeath to someone for sex, then it should be okay.”
That’s not a totally unconvincing argument. If someone can donate their body to the “Body Farm” where researchers subject corpses to all sorts of adverse environments, why should sex be any different? (It’s just creepier?)
Of course, anyone planning sudden travel to Sweden should know that neither incest nor necrophilia are going to be legalized anytime soon. The group promoting their legalization has been referred to as “nitwits” and accused of trying to pull “a publicity stunt.”
According to The Independent, Sweden’s not the only country with people looking to end incest laws. The same happened in Germany in 2014. Those laws, however, are still on the books. In the United States, both incest and necrophilia carry legal penalties (although every state has a rule about the former, while some states have neglected to provide for the latter).
(Via The Independent)