MSPs gave a bid to legalise incest short shrift when it went before a Holyrood committee today.
The petition was lodged by Richard Morris and called for the law to be amended so that it does not apply where both participants are consenting adults over the age of 21.
Mr Morris, who was not at the committee hearing, was driven to lodge the petition after a Scottish man was convicted for having a “consensual” sexual relationship with his adult daughter.
The petitioner, who is believed to live in Australia, said the law should be reformed to end the discrimination against the activities of consenting adults.
“Public fears, prejudice and bigotry about ACI [adult consensual incest] are mostly due to ignorance created over many years mostly by the church and church-influenced governments and newspapers, in much the same way as public fears and bigotry about homosexuality were created,” he said in the petition.
Scottish Conservatives MSP Jackson Carlaw, a member of the Parliament’s public petitions committee, which threw out the petition, said: “Having read the detail of the petition I don’t think an argument is made that would justify the public interest being served in this petition continuing.”
Sexual intercourse with “certain blood relatives” constitutes incest and is illegal under The Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995.
For men that forbids sexual relationships with his mother, daughter, grandmother, granddaughter, sister, aunt, niece, great grandmother and great granddaughter.
The Scottish Law Commission reviewed the legislation in 2007 and supported retaining it.