To be disturbed by wilfull ignorance around genetic inbreeding?

[M9009]

I've come from a country were cousin marriage and indeed marriage to any close relative if illegal.
I've recently started working in a dialysis unit and I'm so disturbed by how many parents are young children born of first cousin marriage. Usually from South Asian backgrounds.
Today I was speaking to one parents who has 9 children, all in need of kidney transplants. The eldest 2 have already had theirs. Parents are first degree cousins and each have various medical problems of their own.
Why, as a society, do we allow these marriages? It seems so cruel to the children who are born with medical and genetic problems.
Maybe I'm easily shocked, I don't know.

YES

It relates to prejudice and discrimination applied to a community so they stick together:

On the ground in Bradford, it's a more mixed picture. Prof Sam Oddie, a consultant neonatologist and researcher at Bradford Teaching Hospitals, has worked in the city for more than two decades. Over the years he has observed lots of severe genetic disorders. "I've seen fatal skin conditions, fatal brain conditions, fatal muscle conditions". He says it was "immediately clear" these conditions were occurring more in Bradford than elsewhere.
He remembers some tragic examples: families who lost several children, one after the other, to the same genetic disorder. "That's very upsetting and very difficult for the family to get their heads around."
Common ancestors
But crucially, Prof Oddie thinks the main risk to genetic health in Bradford is not cousin marriage, but a similar issue known as endogamy, in which people marry members of their close community. In a tight-knit ethnic group, people are more likely to share common ancestors and genes - whether or not they are first cousins, he says.
Endogamy is not unique to Pakistani communities in the UK. It is an issue too in the UK's Jewish community and globally among the Amish and also French Canadians.
"It's often the case that the exact familial tie can't be traced, but the gene occurs more commonly within a certain group, and for that reason, both parents carry the affected gene," Prof Oddie says. "It's an oversimplification to say that cousin marriage is the root of all excess recessive disorders in Bradford or in Pakistani communities. Endogamy is an important feature."

This is from a BBC article Born in Bradford (research being undertaken about health there)

It’s a genuine question. Are you making the argument that those on the left like to marry their cousins or something? Because that’s painting with quite a broad brushstroke.

Your banning cousin marriage because of the risks of disability its only a small step to ban disabled people from having children because if the risks of disability

People are connecting dots and believing that the surge in autistic children is because autistic adults are now in the community (im not saying this is factual by the way im repeating what's been said by former friends) they would be all for a ban on "disabled breeding" to "protect the future")

So while I dont think cousin marriage should be banned i do think second generation onwards should be genetically tested and advised prior to marriage

Some Irish Travellers promise their daughters at birth to their male first cousin.
It's a very patriarchal society. My mother knew a Traveller woman in her forties (50 years ago) who had had 21 children of which only 11 survived - all born in a tent or caravan with no medical assistance whatsoever - really grim for the woman. She hid her eldest daughter with another female relative when she was 16 as she had been promised to her first cousin in marriage the day she was born but her mother objected and did not want her daughter to marry so young or to marry her first cousin as she had been forced to do. Her husband beat her black and blue (the woman who had carried 21 children for him) and she called to our house for support as my mother had been kind to her when she was camped nearby. Her husband forced her to reveal where the daughter was and she was soon after married to her father's brother's son. She never came back to school after that so I have no knowledge of what happened to her since then but can well imagine.

Oh, I see. No, not a problem with brown people having an opinion - just brown people or any people having an opinion that directly and negatively affects certain communities, And costs the taxpayer £££ when it’s easily preventable.

Obviously some people have an agenda to allow cousin marriages for various reasons.

Do you think we shouldn’t be allowed to discuss the ramifications of that?

I had no idea about all this. Thank you MNers!

It's not just Asian families. Don't the royals do it too?

It would explain a lot.

I know someone who married a cousin, they did a lot of genetic testing beforehand. And one of them has a parent from a very different ethnic background so a pretty good mix of genes I would think.

I still think its weird.

They are neither British aristocrats, South Asian, or Irish travellers.

First-cousin marriage in England in 1875 was estimated by George Darwin to be 3.5% for the middle classes and 4.5% for the nobility, though this had declined to under 1% during the 20th century….1% is a lot of people

I am making the argument that those on the left reflexively defend the people who make routinely marry their cousins, and call those who oppose it racist and islamophobic.

👏

For people of Pakistani heritage in the UK it’s 60%.

Why don't more people do genetic testing before having kids? or deciding to marry? its pretty cheap and easy nowadays

Posh people married first cousins ( Queen Vic and Albert were 1st cousins) but once there was a heir and a spare they were free to have affairs so the gene pool got a bit of a healthier boost if the woman had further children by different men. They were brought up as siblings.

Approximately 55% of British Pakistanis are married to their first cousins, based on a 2021 study, though rates are declining
. These unions account for about 3% of all marriages in the UK. While historically high, the practice is decreasing in some areas due to education, with rates falling in Bradford, for example, from 39% to 27%.

Because it wouldn’t be that useful.

By far the most common severe disability on here seems to be non verbal autism. That wouldn’t be picked up by genetic testing in most cases.

That's why Will and Harry had to marry as far outside their genetic pool as possible.

Personally I can’t even fathom having any romantic feelings for my cousins. I know a few cousins that have dated etc and each to thier own but I just couldn’t do it. Even my 2nd and 3rd cousins…. They are all family and it wouldn’t even enter my mind to have this type of relationship with them…

Why would being in the US mean that you don't “super” pay attention?

I genuinely didn’t realise it is not illegal in the UK, always assumed it was. I’m a fairly well educated person but this one obviously passed me by. Pretty shocking!

Because what the NHS says doesn't really affect me. I read the article and watched the video, said, "huh," and went on about my day. First cousin marriage is illegal in my state. The NHS statement is unlikely to change that.

Why would they “reflexively” defend? Is that a left-wing thing in your opinion?