sci-fi incest think-piece

So this one has been floating around in my head for a while, but I'll never get around to actually doing anything with it, so I'm tossing it out here.

In the not so different future, a mother (I lean towards thinking about concepts in mother/son themes first, but this would work equally well as a daddy/daughter story) is struggling with her growing attraction for her son (who is - of course! - now of legal age). She feels the predictable combination of guilt and shame over her arousal, and she's come close to acting on it a few times, and has always just held back and then masturbated to those fantasies later. And she knows that her son watches her, and it excites her to no end to know how she turns him on.
One day, there's a knock on her door, and it's a couple officers from the Office of Genetic Oversight (OGO), who monitor the overall genetics of the population. They sit her down, and tell her that they have some shocking news: the doctor who oversaw her son's genetic health (standard procedure in this near future) was doing some illegal experiments: particularly manipulating the genetics involving pheromone production, to maximize sexual attraction between child and parent. Why? Maybe it was just a fetish for this doctor. Anyway, thousands were affected.
The officers ask her of she's felt anything toward her son or if she's noticed him acting strangely. She says she hasn't, needing more time to process this. The officers say that they'll be in touch, their department has found a way to alter pheromone production and essentially reverse the procedure; they can either alter the pheromone production in the offspring or the parent to eliminate the attraction.
After they leave, the mother feels an overwhelming sense of relief: that this attraction is not her fault. That it's fixable. She resolves to have the procedure done as soon as possible. But then, she also begins to feel a bit of a sense of loss. She'll miss feeling that attraction. She may even miss her son watching her in that way. But it's not a real attraction, she reminds herself. It's just some crazy experiment. That night, she slips into her room. One time, she decides. One time, then she'll get cured, and she can blame that one time on that crazy scientist. And that night is amazing, it's everything she hoped it would be.
The next morning, after her son has left, she feels the guilt and shame. Again, she reminds herself that it's not her fault. She prepares to call the OGO to ask them to perform the procedure on her. She sits, watching the phone, conflicted about what she knows she should do and what she really wants. Then the phone rings. She picks it up.
It's an officer from the OGO calling: Good news! She was in the control group. There was no pheromone manipulation in her son. She thanks the officer, and hangs up the phone. She knows she should feel awful, because this has just confirmed that everything that she has done is nobody's fault but her own. In truth, all she feels is relief that this intense and forbidden attraction is real, and will not be disappearing any time soon.

How is this a think-piece?

It is a clever idea

Possibly there's a genetic switch somewhere that, in the usual position, makes incest abhorrent to most people, for evolutionary reasons. If that switch were flipped the other way, the person might be more attracted to close relatives than to more genetically diverse people.

This could be useful in selective breeding experiments, perhaps. Isolate and perpetuate desirable traits by breeding back. An unfortunate side-effect in cattle and other domesticated animals is stupidity, however. But maybe that could be overlooked in favor of bulging biceps, thighs like tree trunks, and an equally thick head.

Thanks. I may have to steal this.

jacktar48 said:

Possibly there's a genetic switch somewhere that, in the usual position, makes incest abhorrent to most people, for evolutionary reasons. If that switch were flipped the other way, the person might be more attracted to close relatives than to more genetically diverse people.

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There's a psychological effect, I forget the name, that pushes apart people who have grown up together, whether bio-kin or not. Actually, when relatives have been raised apart, they are more likely to be attracted to each other. Long-separated siblings and parent-child couples feel that attraction. There have been studies, of course. So there's no genetic switch. But a psyche can always be brainwashed, yah? We can be programmed for incest. Or whatever.

interesting twist might be if it is a genetic quirk that can only be cured by sex with a close relative...something to do with mingling hormones...

Hypoxia said:

There's a psychological effect, I forget the name, that pushes apart people who have grown up together, whether bio-kin or not. Actually, when relatives have been raised apart, they are more likely to be attracted to each other. Long-separated siblings and parent-child couples feel that attraction. There have been studies, of course. So there's no genetic switch. But a psyche can always be brainwashed, yah? We can be programmed for incest. Or whatever.

Click to expand...

Westermarck Effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westermarck_effect

MatthewVett said:

How is this a think-piece?

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I use it in the ironic, Almost Famous sense of the word. Does anyone use it in any other sense?