Brother and sister fight to wed (Australia)

news.com.au ^ | 2/20/04

[knak]

A WEST Australian couple who are brother and sister by adoption, but unrelated by blood, are battling a federal law that prevents their marrying.

Kevin and Deborah Jefferies have been in love for at least 10 years and want to get married.

But under the Federal Marriage Act 1961, which prevents brothers and sisters marrying, their relationship is taboo.

The couple became siblings on paper when their parents married and Kevin's father adopted Deborah and her sisters.

"There's so many people who can get divorced so easily – we can't even get married to start with," Kevin told Channel 7.

"If you love somebody, you marry them . . . it's more than just a piece of paper."

As children, Kevin and Deborah Jefferies lived in separate homes.

Although Deborah, at 17, refused Kevin's first proposal, fearing it would upset their parents, the couple only formally discovered they were forbidden from marrying one another after Deborah fell pregnant with their first child.

"We went to the Births, Deaths and Marriages to find out what was going on. He (the adviser) said we can have as many children as we want, we just can't marry legally," Deborah, now a mother of three, said.

"Just because we have the same surname it shouldn't mean we can't get married."

The couple said they had written to federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock asking for special consideration.

"We're just trying to do it quietly – just for ourselves," Kevin said.

"If first cousins can get married, why can't Deborah and I?"

[BossLady]

OMG....LMAO! Does your wife know about this? ;)

[AgThorn]

ROFL!!

[Joe 6-pack]

Actually, I think Janet is Chelsea's blood-father...

[King Black Robe]

I would need more info than that one statement, but I will still think it is wrong.

[cajun-jack]

course not...i haven't been married to the same lady for 33 years by being completely stupid lol

[bootyist-monk]

There was an Aussie who married his TV a few months ago.... :o

A wife that "gets" ESPN and has a mute button? Pure genius.

I keed. I keed.

[JoJo Gunn]

DAY-um!

[EggsAckley]

No apology necessary.

from the article:

"As children, Kevin and Deborah Jefferies lived in separate homes."

It IS interesting that nowhere in the article does it state their current age. I have the feeling that they are NOT teenagers, but rather are in their twenties, and have been together for a number of years.

[lepton]

Considering that they are NOT blood relatives, I don't see the harm in legitimizing their three children. If they WERE blood-related, then no, they should not marry.

If one uses the biological argument (inbreeding), then I would agree. If one uses the social argument, then I would not agree: It is a bad thing for children growing up to be regarded by others in the home as potential sexual targets.

[concerned about politics]

They love each other and many people go through life without the blessing of finding that special person. I say give them the marriage license and be done with it.

The problem is incrementalism. Blood relatives will demand their rights, because adoption is a legal document that says parents are parents, and siblings are siblings.
If this were to pass, the definition of "adoption" would have to change, just like the homos are trying to change the meaning of "marriage."
Adoption would no longer be adoption, marriage no longer marriage.

[EggsAckley]

They WEREN'T raised together:


"As children, Kevin and Deborah Jefferies lived in separate homes."

[knak]

OK, it just really grossed me out thinking about it. My brother used to wrestle me to see who cleaned the kitchen. Or run over and poot near me and laugh! He's strange. I just can't imagine anyone wanting to marry a sibling. Yuck. Although the story isn't to clear about it!

[concerned about politics]

If my crock pot....

ROTF!

[EggsAckley]

Yeah, it's a very poorly written article, with specific facts missing.

I know what you mean about brothers; I don't even really like HUGGING mine. LOL!

[knak]

LOL, me either

[lepton]

"As children, Kevin and Deborah Jefferies lived in separate homes."

And if they weren't "children" how could they have been adopted? Apparently there is some nuanced wording going on here.

[paltz]

I knew it !

[Pappy Smear]

I had neighbors that were married, and "brother and sister". Nice folks too. His father and her mother got married later in life, when my neighbors were in their 30s. My neighbors were both divorced, and met when their parents started dating. Then about a year after their parents married, they got married too.

So it wasn't a teenage Brady kinda thing. They seemed a little embarassed by it, when I first found out, but in this case, I don't have a problem with it. At their age when it happenned, it seems about the same as 2 brothers marrying 2 sisters of a completely different family.

[bicycle thug]

"The problem is incremental ism."

That is an argument for politically correct thinking. That a child must - for example - be suspended for having a pen knife on a key chain he had not though anything about because it is a tool. Because if you allow that - God forbid - then next he will bring his cub scout knife to school that he uses to whittle pine box derby cars, and if that is overlooked, then next a toy gun, than a BB gun, than an Uzi.

We have been blasting the irrationality of P.C. intolerance that throws common sense out the window.

The stipulated facts are: They are not blood relatives. They love each other. They are making babies who need respect from their peers and protections engendered from the anchor contract of a family known as marriage. How you could come up with a wild idea that unless we don't let them live in sin the world will end is beyond my comprehension.

[gcruse]

Adopted, unrelated by blood?

Let them do what they will.