And their marriage was annulled in the UK. Very bizarre story.

Following Lawrence, and now Windsor, I tend to think that bans on incest-marriage may be on precarious footing. Putting aside irrelevant moral concerns about incest–no longer valid after Windsor–the state’s main interest in preventing incest is a concern for spreading certain recessive genetic traits. But that can’t be rational. For example, a Jewish groom and bride of Eastern European descent, who both carry a recessive gene for Tay-Sachs, are free to get married, even though the likelihood of passing the debilitating disease to the child is huge. I quipped in this post if a state could ban two brothers from marrying each other–concerns about reproducing with recessive genes isn’t an issue. And really, after Windsor, procreation and marriage are not at all connected. It’s about the dignity of the union between two people in love.

Does the state today have any valid reason–other than morality–for denying a brother and sister, who are in love, from marrying each other? It’s not clear if this couple from the UK wanted to have their marriage annulled. It’s doubtful. If they wanted to divorce, they would have been free to do so. Instead, the government did it for them. Though the shame and ignominy is enough to punish this couple, who will remain anonymous.