I can't get my head around 'Social Services were investigating/considering (sorry can't remember the words but about right) whether or not the situation was safe'. For Heaven's Sake! The parents are half-brother and sister, surely to goodness after the first birth everyone should have been separated and this whole developing situation stopped? Can only echo the OP_ ...'those poor children' - but, then, they shouldn't have been born in the first place. Does that put me as practical or out of the pale? Totally horrible for them.