Q: Do you worry about the potential genetic problems associated with
having kids with your biological father?
A: Nope. I wouldn’t risk having a kid if I thought it would be harmful.
I’ve done my research. Everybody thinks that kids born in incestuous
relationships will definitely have genetic problems, but that’s not true. That
happens when there’s years of inbreeding, like with the royal family. Incest
has been around as long as humans have. Everybody just needs to deal with it as
long as nobody is getting hurt or getting pressured or forced.
There are so many people having kids who will be passing on health
problems, people with diabetes or mental health issues, or AIDS. My mom was
allowed to have kids and both her and her mom were bipolar. My research tells
me that the only real genetic risk is high blood pressure, which is
controllable. I think people only worry about it because they look to the
genetic problems that occurred when incest was happening generation upon
generation. They say, Well, look at King Henry VIII — but he was only a genetic
mutant because they had kept it in the family for so long.
From Interview in NYMag.com,
January 2015
Genetic sexual attraction (GSA) is sexual attraction between close
relatives, such as siblings or half-siblings, a parent and offspring, or first
and second cousins, who first meet as adults.
Wikipedia
What is Genetic
Sexual Attraction?
Genetic Sexual Attraction also known as GSA, is a phrase
popularized by Barbara Gonyo in the 1980’s. Gonyo Founded “Truth Seekers In
Adoption,” a Chicago-based support group for adoptees and their new-found
relatives after she herself was reunited with her adopted Son and recognized
that the feelings she was experiencing were somewhat unusual to say the least.
GSA refers to intense sexual desire that can arise between genetically related
people are who are united in Adulthood, after having been denied the
opportunity to form proper emotional bonds. The phenomenon known as Genetic
Sexual Attraction can occur between any pair of close genetic relatives
Siblings, and even Parents and their Long lost Children.
Genetic Sexual Attraction can begin as a fascination with
a newly found family member that grows into being consumed with that person.
But, in many cases, it leads to relatives becoming involved in behavior they
could never imagine themselves doing. There are people who have experienced
GSA, and who sadly, have chosen one of two extremes that destroy a proper
familial bond that is crucial. To walk away from those who share our DNA and
bloodline because of inappropriate or confusing feelings is a terrible loss,
and only deepens the void that was created by separation from those we were
supposed to bond with from infancy through death. But even more disastrous is
the opposite extreme of some people who have abandoned their spouses, their
children, and society's value system to begin an inappropriate physical
relationship with the person they are convinced is their soul mate.
Personal Story
Gonyo, the non-academic who originally "outed"
GSA in the 1980s, has written the only book on the subject. In it, she suggests
that romantic love and erotic arousal may be the delayed by-product of
"missed bonding" that would have normally taken place between a
mother and her newborn infant, or between siblings had they not been separated
by adoption. "Many such people, as adults, need to go through that early
missed closeness. It may become sexual, or it may not."
Gonyo's reputation as the world's leading GSA
"expert" came about largely as a result of her own experience of
strong sexual attraction, when, in 1979 and aged 42, she was reunited with her
adult son 26 years after she had given him up for adoption. Now a 65-year-old
grandmother, she admits, that what saved her marriage and allowed her
eventually to build a healthy relationship with her birth son Mitch was that
she did not have sex with him, due to his unresponsiveness.
An energetic, cheery and straight-talking woman, Gonyo
estimates that it took her a dozen years to overcome the desire to sleep with
Mitch. "Believe me, the state of arousal, which grew as I got to know him,
was as erotic as anything I felt for my husband. I wanted to get naked with
Mitch, feel his flesh against mine. The first time I hugged him, it beat any
feeling I've experienced in my life. If he had felt the same way, I don't know
if I could have stopped myself. But Mitch was very afraid of my feelings, and
wouldn't ever talk about any of this, or how he felt."
At that time, Mitch, an art teacher, had various
girlfriends. "Despite this, my behavior around him was atrocious. I was
flirtatious, coquettish and playful. When getting ready to see him, I primped
and primed, becoming like a 16-year-old in mind and body. I was trying to win
him over, like someone I wanted to date or marry." Gonyo recalls feeling
ashamed and dirty. "At the beginning, the urge was less erotic, more like
bonding with a newborn child. As with all my subsequent children, I wanted to
smell him, stroke and run my fingers through his hair. I saw so much of myself
in him, and he also reminded me strongly of his father, my first teenage
love." But having experienced that primary stage of "delayed
bonding", Gonyo wanted more. "I was no longer looking for the baby, I
wanted a relationship with the adult - the man." What frightened her was
that these emotions did not fit into any appropriate context. "I wasn't
Mitch's lover or girlfriend, and I couldn't be his mother, because he had one,
although he never allowed me to meet her. I felt like an intruder, unimportant
and humiliated."
When Mitch got married 12 years ago, Gonyo finally
established a relaxed friendship with him. "It's as if I've turned him
over to his wife, so now we can be friends. It took me until then to be able to
say honestly that I don't have those sexual feelings any more. What meeting
Mitch taught me was self-control." It also led to her passionate
"mission" to encourage widespread understanding of GSA.
Contributing
factors
People tend to select mates that are like themselves;
this is known as assortative mating. This holds both for physical appearances
and mental traits. People commonly rank faces similar to their own as more
attractive, trustworthy, etc. than average. However, Bereczkei attributes this in part to childhood
imprinting on the opposite-sex parent. As for mental traits, one study found a
correlation of 0.403 between husbands and wives, with husbands averaging about
2 IQ points higher. The study also reported a correlation of 0.233 for
extraversion and 0.235 for inconsistency (using Eysenck's Personality
Inventory). A review of many previous studies found these numbers to be quite
common.
Heredity produces substantial physical and mental
similarity between close relatives. Shared interests and personality traits are
commonly considered desirable in a mate. The heritability of these qualities is
a matter of debate but estimates are that IQ is about 80% heritable, and the
big five personality factors are about 50% heritable. This data is for adults
in Western countries.
For the above reasons, genetic sexual attraction is
presumed to occur as a consequence of genetic relatives meeting as adults,
typically as a consequence of adoption. Although this is a rare consequence of
adoptive reunions, the large number of adoptive reunions in recent years means
that a larger number of people are affected. If a sexual relationship is
entered, it is known as incest.
GSA is rare between people raised together in early
childhood due to a reverse sexual imprinting known as the Westermarck effect,
which desensitizes them to later close sexual attraction. It is hypothesized
that this effect evolved to prevent inbreeding.
Pastor Bill Bossert, Past President of the Oregon
Adoptive Rights Association (OARA) writes that genetic attraction is a
frequently noted response to reunion. Feelings include the need to touch, to
spend time together, talk and share. Suggested reasons for the attraction
include:
* Similar Characteristics
Similar genetic makeup can produce similarities in
temperament, appearance, and other areas that are common in all birth families
to a certain extent.
* Self-Love
While we may not want to admit it, we generally tend to
feel more comfortable with those whose characteristics are similar to our own.
* Aromatic Identification
It has been suggested that a subconscious memory of the
smell of one's own family may be recognized and, if so, would cause an actual
physical reaction.
Is GSA a Common
Phenomenon?
Some studies of GSA suggest that feelings of more than
just a familiar level occur in up to 50 percent of all post adoption
reunions. It tends to be prevalent in
family relationships where the Westermarck effect has not occurred.
Sources and
Additional Information: