More on Florida Man’s Adoption of His Girlfriend: Is It Incest?

Individuals adopting adult lovers or spouses has been a growing trend in American, and the reasons for the adoption range from ensuring an inheritance to preventing estate plan contests. In the case of John Goodman, the Florida man who adopted his girlfriend, the reason behind the adoption was, allegedly, to protect his children’s interests in a multi-million dollar trust.  Same-sex couples have occasionally utilized adult adoption to ensure that one partner is taken care of in the event of the other partner’s death.

The issued raised by these specific adult adoptions is whether the adoption, coupled with the on-going sexual relationship between the two individuals, is considered incest. In Terry L. Turnipseed’s article, Scalia’s Ship of Revulsion Has Sailed: Will Lawrence Protect Adults Who Adopt Lovers to Help Ensure their Inheritance from Incest Prosecution?, 32 Hamline. L.R. 95 (Winter 2009), Turnipseed details Justice Scalia’s warning that the holding in Lawrence v. Texas makes it impossible for state and federal governments to outlaw adult incest. (In Lawrence, the Supreme Court held that consensual sexual conduct between two adults is protected under the Fourteenth Amendment).

Regardless of what the courts say, however, the general public tends to look poorly upon such relationships, labeling them as incestuous even though eugenics issues are not present.   

See, Terry L. Turnipseed (Associate Professor of Law, Syracruse Universtiy College of Law), A Florida Millionaire Adopted His 42-Year-Old Girlfriend. Isn’t That Incest?, Slate, Feb. 7, 2012.