A state-funded ethics committee which advises the German government on social policy has recommended that laws criminalising incest be scrapped, the Telegraph reports.

“Criminal law is not the appropriate means to preserve a social taboo,” the German Ethics Council said in a statement. “The fundamental right of adult siblings to sexual self-determination is to be weighed more heavily than the abstract idea of protection of the family.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has said that they do not intend to follow the Council’s recommendation, which follows the case of Patrick S. who was adopted as an infant and met his sister Susan K in his 20s. They went on to have four children together. Patrick S. has served several sentences for incest, and has launched several appeals since his latest imprisonment in 2008.

The family was ordered to live apart after the courts ruled that the state had a duty to protect their children from the consequences of their relationship. The couple took a case to the European Court of Human Rights, which found against them on the basis that “the German authorities had a wide margin of appreciation in confronting the issue, since there was no consensus between the Council of Europe member States as to whether consensual sexual acts between adult siblings constituted a crime.”

Two of the couple’s children are disabled, but the German Ethics Council rejected this as grounds for criminalising it, on the basis that other genetically affected couples are not banned from having children.

A statement released on Wednesday said: “Incest between siblings appears to be very rare in Western societies according to the available data but those affected describe how difficult their situation is in light of the threat of punishment.”

However, The Telegraph cites a study by the Max Planck Institute that found two to four percent of Germans have had “incestuous experiences.”

A spokeswoman for the ruling Christian Democrat Party firmly ruled out any change.

“The abolition of the offense of incest between siblings would be the wrong signal,” said Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker, legal policy spokeswoman for the party’s group in parliament.

“Eliminating the threat of punishment against incestuous acts within families would run counter to the protection of undisturbed development for children.”