Should it be illegal for 1st cousins to marry?

[brasty]

My DP's parents are 1st cousins, and DP has a genetic illness. Marrying your 1st cousin increases the chances of genetic illness. So I wonder if we should simply make it illegal for 1st cousins to marry? Obviously anyone married would stay so, it would only apply to new marriages.
AIBU?

It should be banned here, however it iscommon practice amongst some immigrant communities. If it was banned it would stop this practice here but not in their countries of origin. You may see an increase in forced marriages of British citizens to their first cousins in their countries of orgin.

it didn't do our royals any good.
You are way more likely to get a gene expressing something you don't want expressed, so why chance it.

No, it is not a moral issue. I don't care about 1st cousins marrying, it is having kids I wonder about.
Maybe it would BU to ban it. But just hard to see someone you love having difficulties that were preventable

Travellers have poor overall health, linked to a small gene pool and poor living conditions.

Galactosaemia is also common amongst their community.

Kaytee

I had to google! It seems it is legal in countries you wouldn't expect such as Australia, Austria, France, Finland and Russia. Blimey!

It's not a good idea, especially if several generations do the same, and especially if double cousins. My concern about making it illegal is that people could still get married with a religious ceremony, and not have the security of a legal marriage.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110863013000037

www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/news/health/redbridge-council-still-working-to-halt-child-deaths-caused-by-interfamily-relationships-1-5019069

www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/Documents/Borough_statistics/JSNA/Consanguinity-JSNA-Fact-Sheet.pdf

Not sure about making it illegal yeah they could end up with kids who have genetic conditions but 2 people who aren't related but carry the same gene for a genetic condition could also end up having a child with a genetic condition should that be made a illegal as well.

British Pakistani children are very overrepresented when it comes to birth defects and genetic illnesses.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-23183102

I don't think it should be legal, but I don't think you can fight it when the cultural reasons behind wanting cousins to marry are so strong (within certain communities that is).

Well @TheEagle @QueenMortificado said it was 'gross' and many posters have said 'Urgh'. Just a bit disheartening especially when I know another family whose parents are first cousins and their children also have no health issues. I just think its a bit rude to degrade a whole community of people you have no idea about.

Interestingly I read a study that suggested that the reason we don't find our siblings and cousins we grew up with attractive is a self protection mechanism to protect from these diseases. Basically it said that people you were in close proximity with before the age of 7 would be unattractive to you so you wouldn't mate with them. I reckon in cave man days we probably lived in much closer quarters with extended family so wouldn't be making babies with our cousins as we basically wouldn't fancy them. Just theorising of course

Am I right in thinking it's legal for an aunt to marry her nephew or uncle /niece?

It's illegal to marry your the sibling or half-sibling of a parent, or the child of your sibling or half-sibling.

Potential engagees can elect for genetic testing, for a more precise risk level of breeding with their cousin.

The Bradford Study (2013) found that the relative risk may double, but that the absolute risk was still 'small' as 94% of pairings are fine:

"The study's lead author Dr Eamonn Sheridan, from the University of Leeds, said: "It is important to note that the vast majority of babies born to couples who are blood relatives are absolutely fine, and whilst consanguineous marriage increases the risk of birth defect from 3% to 6%, the absolute risk is still small."

It's never going to be made illegal with those odds.

TheEagle their life expectancy is significantly lower than settled people's, although things are being slowing improved by ground roots education. So many genetic diseases and a higher rate of infant mortality.

YANBU, now we know enough about the science to understand the consequences it should illegal to marry and there should be better education. This isn't a moral judgement, it doesn't matter how often then cousins have met growing up, it is purely a biological thing.

Sorry andiesays, I was skimming the thread and didn't see those comments.

When I worked in a childrens hospital one of the questions on the patient info sheet is 'How are the parents related?' not 'Are they..?' Which I thought was an interesting question!

I feel very strongly that leaders within these communities must do more to educate and empower women. It is likely the mother who will bear the brunt of caring for a disabled child.

It is a culture that can and should be changed (in the UK at least) and fear of being seen to be racist is still preventing this conversation from happening.

No issue with first cousin marriage but bearing children is significant risk and a large cause of avoidable disability, premature death and suffering.

YANBU.

A one-off marriage between two cousins is fine imo. I have a relation who married her cousin and it didn't seem odd or icky because they didn't meet each other until they were in their 30's.

Repeated marriages is a big problem though. I don't think banning it would solve anything, it would just encourage people to marry abroad.

I also think this sort of thing is the reason that the constant chopping and changing of children's surnames that sometimes happens and children not knowing their biological heritage (I mean when Dad walks away and Mum meets someone else quickly and that person is Dad and the child is unaware of their biological family - I don't mean in adoption scenarios) should be massively frowned upon. I worked in a high school with two children who'd grown up in the same community, had been friends since they were at nursery, then WWIII kicked off when they started dating at 15 because they were related (closely) and had no idea.

I'm a child of first cousins who lived in different countries and had met only twice in their life before marriage and my siblings and I are perfectly well. So, it is a bit hurtful to see that some think it sick.

I don't think it's sick, certainly not from a relationship perspective. But I do think when we know as much about genetics as we now do, it's completely warped to hold culture/tradition/feelings above the health of your future children. And it's primarily the children, who had no choice in the matter, who suffer.

Many children who come to our hospital with genetic problems have parents who refuse to discuss it.

The attitude that cousin marriages are preferable, is going to be a hard one to shift in many Pakistani and Afghani families.

But I am the child and I haven't suffered not a bit minus a really horrible comment from a GP.

But just hard to see someone you love having difficulties that were preventable

This is a rather self defeating statement as your DP wouldn't exist if this had been a consideration. Don't get me wrong, I agree it should be banned.

i have a child with a gene deletion that has caused him various disabillities and he has complex needs , his deltion is de novo its occurred randomly but if he was to have children [unlikely due to his needs] he would have a 50% chance of passing it on the affects of his deletion can range from minimal to severe so you can see how to cousins marrying with the same deletion and passing it on time and time again could cause many disabillities

It's not marriage in itself that is the issue here. Unmarried couples can have children and married couples don't necessarily have children.