1st cousin marriage

It wouldn't bother me particularly and I wouldn't ban it because I don't really see that it's much of a problem.

Maybe I feel like this because I've only met my cousins a handful of times in 30 years, so they barely even feel like relatives to me. I don't know.

My husband's cousins are married to each other and their fathers are twins. It's not ideal...

My husband's cousins are married to each other and their fathers are twins. It's not ideal...

Ugh, my stomach churned.

🤮

It’s revolting. The thought of one of my sons marrying my niece is disgusting.

Haemophilia was rife in her descendants if you include female carriers too.
It's a really strange example to give in favour of cousin marriage.

Those who want to ban it - have you remembered that Queen Victoria married her first cousin?

Which led to haemophilia.

Why is it disgusting?

It’s allowed and one of my family members married a cousin so be careful what you say

The main reason that it was not banned by law is because there was little reason to do so as cases were isolated. It was briefly popular among aristocrats and other wealthy classes in the 19th century but by the 20rh century it accounted for less than 1% of marriages.

Exactly. Due to naturally evolved aversion and social improvements it became rare so wasn’t necessary to legislate against. The fact it has become MORE common than 100 years ago demonstrates why it is now absolutely necessary to legislate against, particularly as other methods such as education and public health campaigns have failed to bring it back down even to the levels of occurrence on a per capita basis even before genetic inbreeding was proved to cause disease and disabilities. That fact alone is shocking. And then when you look at the distribution of it across the population it is clear that there are pockets of this in certain communities which is even more harmful than if this was widespread; socially, economically, and in terms of preventing abuse and harm.

There has never been a situation in the UK since modern recorded history began, even when most people lived in very small communities, where the level of inbreeding was as high as it is in some of the communities now deliberately practicing this in the UK, and there is no necessity for them to do so (e.g. they live in a farming community with no transport so only ever meet the few thousand people who live locally enough to be accessed by riding a horse).

The medieval worldview driving this abhorrent behaviour causes immense and unnecessary harm to children and is part of a pattern of behaviour which restricts women’s freedom, and wider society is paying a huge cost for it. It has no benefit to society or individuals at all. It’s obvious that we need to clamp down on it very hard, and stamp it out to the greatest extent possible.

Continuation of this being legal is not compatible with the principles of law of the UK, our social values, with science, with the imperative to protect children from easily avoidable and unnecessary harm, with the social contract of what taxpayers should pay to fund, with social cohesion and integration, with the protection of women from abuse, with anything of any value that most people in the UK hold in esteem and the very things that make this a good place to live, so it must be prohibited by law like all other behaviours that are so harmful they will undermine the above.

I can't see it being banned though. Politicians are courting the Muslim vote, especially Labour politicians.

As well as the suffering of the children and the cost, it also creates more insular and clan-based communities which is bad for social cohesion overall. But I'll be very surprised is anything is ever done about it, apart from the odd leaflet.

Why is it disgusting?

It’s allowed and one of my family members married a cousin so be careful what you say

Not all Muslims are in support of this.

Just a quick defence of the Medieval period - cosanguineous marriage was generally frowned on even then. Eleanor of Aquitaine’s 1st marriage was annulled on the grounds that as 3rd cousins once removed they were too closely related, and she needed a papal dispensation to marry her 2nd husband (a 3rd cousin). Even marrying your sibling’s widow(er) required a dispensation - which was granted in the case of Katherine of Aragon and was one of the main obstacles to Henry VIII securing a divorce.

Just a quick defence of the Medieval period - cosanguineous marriage was generally frowned on even then. Eleanor of Aquitaine’s 1st marriage was annulled on the grounds that as 3rd cousins once removed they were too closely related, and she needed a papal dispensation to marry her 2nd husband (a 3rd cousin). Even marrying your sibling’s widow(er) required a dispensation - which was granted in the case of Katherine of Aragon and was one of the main obstacles to Henry VIII securing a divorce.

The Roman Catholic Church was vehemently against cousin marriage as it rightly saw it as a practice that enforced the tribal society of the Germanic hordes that had conquered the Roman Empire in the west. They start to condemn it from a very early date, soon after the invasions had occurred. Remarkably they were successful, over the centuries the invading Goths, Vandals etc became Christians and followed the church's teachings on cousin marriage.