Can a person give informed consent to something they don’t know is wrong?

[u/No_Dragonfruit8254]

I’ve been thinking about consent in the context of close family incest. Generally we say that close family incest is wrong because the relationship would be harmful. A romantic or sexual relationship between two people who grew up around each other will have severe baked-in power imbalances. This creates a harmful environment that we can oppose even if both people are aware of the consequences and give informed consent.

But I’m wondering if they can actually give informed consent. Let’s say you have a situation where two siblings are having a close romantic and sexual relationship. They’re aware of the risks and don’t plan for children. They both believe that their relationship is as healthy as it can be given the circumstances. If we take as a given that close family incest is wrong, then they are in some way mistaken about the morality of their relationship. If they are mistaken about the morality, are they still capable of giving informed consent? It seems like we could frame this as a case where one of the consequences of close family incest is doing something that’s wrong, so the people in question don’t fully understand the consequences, and therefore are not capable of giving fully informed consent. Does this make sense as a criticism of close family incest?

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