Background
Two children suffer from severe physical and mental disabilities, and another was born with a heart condition that required a heart transplant.
Two children suffer from severe physical and mental disabilities, and another was born with a heart condition that required a heart transplant.
The relationship has produced four children: Eric, Sarah, Nancy, and Sofia. Sofia, the only healthy child, remains with the couple. All three disabled children were placed in foster care.
The relationship caused additional controversy and legal action because incest is illegal in Germany.
Stübing is the third of eight children born into a low income family. Stübing did not meet his mother and biological family until 2000 when he was 23.
Upon his second conviction of incest, Stübing was sentenced to ten months in prison. He was later sentenced to two and a half years in prison for his third incest conviction.
During the latter sentence, Karolewski had a relationship with an unknown man who claimed to be her boyfriend and had a child with him, which she gave up rights to when Stübing was released from prison after.
Incest is illegal in Germany, under paragraph 173 of the legal code. Karolewski was convicted and sentenced to supervision orders because she was a minor when the sexual relationship began and because she has dependent personality disorder. The couple"s lawyer has argued that the law is "out of date" and "breaches the couple"s civil rights".
In 2004, Patrick Stübing voluntarily underwent a vasectomy.
The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany upheld, on March 13, 2008, a law that makes incest a criminal offense, rejecting the appeal by Stübing. On 12 April 2012, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Stübing"s "conviction and prison sentence for an incestuous relationship" did not violate Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Right to respect for private and family life), as "the German authorities had a wide margin of appreciation in confronting the issue".
Stübing requested the case for referral to the Grand Chamber, but on September 24, 2012, it was rejected and judgment has become final.