A New Jersey legislator has proposed banning adult incest after an 18-year-old woman told New York magazine about her intent to move to the Garden State with her father so the two can live as a married couple.
State Rep. Mary Pat Angelini is set to introduce a bill that would ban incestuous relationships in the New Jersey, which is one of the few states that doesn't have an outright ban on parents and children from having a sexual relationship.
"It might be hard to believe, but incest among consenting adults is technically legal in New Jersey," Angelini said. "Obviously, these types of relationships violate our acceptable moral standards and should be banned."
Under current statutes, any pair of consenting adults can engage in a sexual relationship regardless of whether they are related by blood, but a person can't marry their parents, children, nieces, nephews, aunts or uncles.
Angelini's bill would make it a misdemeanor for a person to have sex with those relatives. Those convicted of incest would be sentenced to three to five years behind bars and could face a fine of up to $15,000.
The proposal comes about a week after New York magazine's "Science of Us" blog posted an interview with an unnamed 18-year-old woman who talked about beginning a romantic relationship with her biological father, who she recently met after 12 years of estrangement.
The woman, who lives in the Great Lakes region, told the interviewer she and her father plan to move to New Jersey because adult incest legal there. She also said she and her father plan to have children.
