To think that 1st Cousin Marriage should be illegal

[stucknoue]

Background: as part of my job I rent out halls, they are very popular for Asian parties and weddings and my clients are lovely, often bringing me food and inviting me to their celebrations.

Over the past couple of months I've unfortunately had to rent the hall for child funeral meals twice to the same family, the kids were cousins and had the same rare genetic condition. In talking to their grandad he revealed that he and his wife were cousins, then going on to tell me that the parents of the sadly deceased children were also cousins. I looked up that cousin marriage increases genetic conditions 3 fold, the more generations that have practiced it then the higher the probability. With our knowledge of science surely this practice should be outlawed?

By education I didn't mean in schools.
Just start raising awareness.
TV.....Church....Mosque......Health Centres.
Put out leaflets .
Why not have TV programs discussing the issue?

Also why if we are living in the UK should we not want to encourage our cultural norms?
That is only normal.
Women giving birth over 35 are warned about the increase chance of a Downs baby and can be tested if they want to know. It is not forced.......this is education and awareness Not sticking your head in sand.

Nice bit of casual racism there

Oh for goodness sake people can mention race without stupid accusations of racism.

This is a cultural practice that kept land in the family.

This is now irrelevant for that particular culture, as they are no longer farmers.

However, it constitutes the large proportion of NHS treatment for genetic problems.
Therefore, they should have to pay private fees for the treatment of adhering to such cultural practices.

Nothing stops behaviour like having to pay for the consequences of such behaviour.

Sorry to the woke snowflakes. Not interested in your racist screeching. Common sense is more important than good intentions and morally superior virtue signalling.

@goldfinchfan exactly. I don't see that it's any different to when they tell people with a high BMI (like me) all of the health complications that can affect your baby by being overweight.

professor

Have you got a mirror? talking about dimwits.

So all the English should be Church of England and made to attend church as it's part of our culture. A law against non attendance.

You can't tell people how to live and question their belief system. You don't have to like it, or agree.

It’s rife in the Pakistani community, one family I know are on 3rd generation 1st cousin marriages. Every child produced from these unions have some sort of disability.
Look at Lord Ahmed’s family, most of his and his brother’s children have intermarried.

I married my first cousin. We weren't raised together. Just fell in love. Both children fine, thanks.

However, it constitutes the large proportion of NHS treatment for genetic problems.
Therefore, they should have to pay private fees for the treatment of adhering to such cultural practices

Do you have a source for that? I'm part of worldwide and national UK groups for parents with chromosomal syndromes and I can't recall any cousins.

Would you want (non related) parents who knew antenatally that their child had a syndrome to pay for treatment to because they made the choice to continue? What about smokers and obese people, who cost the NHS a lot?

You do not stop something by making it illegal. FGM is illegal.

Imagine how easy family parties were with only two sets of grandparents, though.

^^

There is this.

You'd have 2 gifts in 1 a lot. Makes financial sense really

@ScreamingLadySutch surely the whole point of a system like the NHS is that society pays for everyone’s problems, whether self inflicted or inflicted by family. That’s the whole idea of a socialised Health system.

Not to mention these children are obviously vulnerable

ScreamingLadySutch

^

Agreed.

Seems like it, yes, Coke. The NHS (I. E. Us, you) pay for other people's problems.

I'm not an advocate for cousin marriages btw!

Interesting link that states that women over 40 have same chance of genetic abnormality as first cousins.

www.independent.co.uk/news/science/theres-nothing-wrong-with-cousins-getting-married-scientists-say-1210072.html

And I pay for your problems managedmis

I believe the statistic are 3% of the population 30% of birth defects. If this is racist tell that to the poor children involved

NarkedinNi I assume the major difference though is that women over 40 can’t compound the risk by having children older over a number of generations can they? A woman over40s risk is nothing like that of first cousins whose parents and grandparents were first cousins, for example

Drabarnis slapdown would have had more punch in a country which didn't have a state religion.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/london-borough-child-deaths-redbridge-parents-related-cousins-pakistani-families-council-report-a7741146.html

I remember a friend talking about this, she's a HV and it's something they try to talk about but get shouted down as racists. She said it's a very sensitive and difficult subject.......... I personally can't understand how it is legal in this country.

Meh. My two cousins have been married for almost thirty years, have four wonderful children. I am not bothered by it in the least.

I'm with you Op, I think it's really wrong. There's a Sophie Kinsella story where first cousins marry and have children, it's so sick.

The issue is not a big one when its one generation but multiple generations and no new genes to add to the gene pool in a family.

Span the link I posted states the contrary. I am not in favour of cousin marriages, I do have a child with a genetic disease though and I remember when the channel 4 'Pakistani problem' programme was aired. At the time there was criticism that this issue was suddenly brought to the forefront by an immigration minister who has no medical knowledge in the lead up to changes in immigration policy. I'm not saying this isn't an issue that needs addressing, but it is highly evident that many believe that this is a much bigger issue than what it is in the grand scheme of the UK population of genetic problems. How many posters have said this is a Pakistani or Muslim thing without even knowing any facts?

24 states in the US prohibit first-cousin marriage, and in a further 6 you need special permission. I suppose some communities were so isolated that there wasn't much choice of partner.

In England, my father came from a small rural village where a lot of people never left the immediate area to find a mate. In the 1940s and later there were many, many people who had physical and learning disabilities. My grandfather's pig man married his first cousin, who was deaf and what they called "daft". Their two dcs were also deaf had to be institutionalised in the end.

Today I don't think it's ignorance that allows first-cousin marriage. I guess some people think that disability is a price worth paying for keeping family and financial ties tight. In these circumstances I think that it should be made illegal.

We have an instance of this in my family, and yes, the children are badly affected. We are white, European. It's not just Asians, believe me. We know other white Europeans who are married consanguineously. Some of the children are fine and some are not. I suppose it depends a lot on what the genetic problem is, assuming there is one at all.

The marriages seem strong and good, though. I won't say that would always be the case, but I do, in the cases I do know, hold them up as ideals to which I aspire in my own relationship.