Another "did not know" is that in France it seems lawful. Meaning, there isn't a law that forbids it.
It's not exactly that.
I'll not tell precisely, because I haven't read our (I'm french) different codes since a really long time, so my memory isn't necessarily precise, and anyway laws can have evolved since. But globally speaking it's split in different laws and not directly addressing incest by its name. By example among the different laws regarding marriage, there's normally one prohibiting it between relatives ; it regard incest, but don't talk about incest.
To my knowledge the only time the notion of incest appear is as aggravating circumstances in case of sexual abuse on minors. It then goes further than blood relatives and also include step-parents and guardians. I kind of remember that legislators wanted to also define as implicit abuse any sexual intercourse between relative if one is minor, but I'm not sure that it was finally adopted.
In an article from the MDR (Mittel Deutscher Rundfunk) states, that it was abolished in 1810. So it seems also in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands.
People tend to underestimate the influence that Napoleon had over Europe.
Having integrated many countries into his Empire, when he reformed justice and, among other thing, defined a new penal and civil codes, it applied de facto in those countries too. And must be said that he (well, the guys who did it for him) did a relatively good job. He established France second penal code in 1810, and it's only in 1994 that France rewrote it entirely, adopting its third penal code. It was obviously updated thousands times in between, but the base was good enough to stay for near to two centuries. And anyway it's not really an obsolescence that lead to the rewriting, but more a question of consistency. When you pass two centuries adding/removing sentences, there's a moment when it become a big mess.
This quality also mean that even among the European countries that never felt under the Empire influence, many used French Laws as base for their owns.
I know that in Germany the thinking behind is reproduction problems. So anal and oral are ok.
Like in fact many countries.
It's not precisely true, but one way to differentiate between countries who made incest illegal due to genetic risks, and those who are doing it due to moral issues, is to look at what is considered as incest. If it just regard blood related, it's generally mostly because of genetics. But if it include step-relative, you can be sure that it's for moral reasons before anything else.
Not that i ever wanted it. I think most people don't really get aroused by their relatives.
I don't know to which extend it's true, but I remember a study saying that our DNA is coded in such way that our brain can differentiate between pheromones of relatives and of strangers. I guess that it's like for our physical appearance, that make us looks like our parents and sibling, and our pheromones smell a bit like theirs. Then, like they play a big part in our lust, this prevent us to lust for them and to fall in love with them. But in the same time, pheromones aren't the only reason why we love someone and/or want to have sex with this person. So, incest can still happen.
Said otherwise, we aren't excited by our relative because our brain recognized them as "out of reach", but sometimes what is "out of reach" is what we will want the most.
So where does that leaves us then? Is the US law, the law of the planet?
No but yes ?
Would you have asked this twenty years ago, I would have answered "no but". Meaning that US Law don't define the Law of the planet, but since it's one of the biggest market, if you don't comply to their Law, you'll never become a big world wide company.
But nowadays Internet changed everything. Even if you are an European company who don't care about the US market, you can at anytime face a boycott campaign influenced by the US Law, and sometimes even started by peoples who don't have access to your product because living outside of Europe.
And like in the same time you need Internet to sell at least a part of your production, you fall more than ever under the rules of the payment processors. With direct sales it's not a problem, it's a bank to bank process, and you can pay/be payed with something else than debit/credit cards. But with Internet the payment processors are more involved in the process and therefore they can totally mess with your business, this whatever the size of your company.
So,
de facto US Law became world's Law. Either you follow them, or you'll be an outlaw with all the risks that it imply. Except that here the risks aren't legals but financials.
It's why both China and Russia have their own version of everything, including payment processors. But it's something less possible outside of those countries. The European Community is big enough to do the same if it wanted, but in the same time it need the US to sell what it product and buy what it need. Same for countries like Australia, Japan, South Korea, and so on.
As long as you sell something, even if it's just a service like Patreon by example, following US Law is the only way to be effectively successful.
In Germany it will land on the index, which makes it unavailable officially to the public. Like Doom or any other bloody game.
This is, once again, due to the way German Law is wrote. It qualify video games as toys, and then boom... You wouldn't present blood and killing to a 6yo child, yeah ? So it can't be in video games.
Still I kind of remember that it already changed a bit. But I don't really follow closely German Law, so I can't tell for sure.
