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.

I agree it should be banned. I grew up being told I would marry my first cousin. I was one of the older girls in my generation. This particular cousin was the eldest boy. He was generally quite pliant and I worried he would agree with what the family wanted.

I never wanted to.

Thankfully we both went to the same uni. One day, I saw him on the bus home. We sat down and agreed that if we were asked to marry eachother, we would say no and that they couldn't force us to, if we both were adamant.

He stuck to his word and said no. He met someone online in 2014 from a totally different country and married her. I married a white British man. We both have kids.

We must have paved the way because since then, NONE of our cousins have married any family member, be it first or second cousins. The elders just had to get over it in the end.

I guess we were lucky that our family got over this needless desire to have us all marry eachother. I know, that not all families are the same.

Also, I can't remember in the last ten years attending any form of cousin marriage. I am sure they still happen, but my lived experience is that it is not as much. I think the best thing is the youngsters growing up and realising they have more options.

We are ethnically South Asian but born in the UK.

Think this through. By saying you would bar treatment from the NHS for the offsping's conditions related to inbreeding you are punishing the innocent. It's not the children's fault. They didn't get a choice.

Anyway, this proposition is so preposturous it would never be seriously entertained, thankfully.

P.s I don't condone marriage between cousins I just dint think the resulting kids should be punished.

That does make sense but not sure that’s enough to ban it. The women in the communities need educating about the risks, although sadly probably have little say in who they marry.

I have to say, I don’t care where they’re from, I think it’s disgusting. The thought of marrying my cousin. Vile.

Thank you for sharing your story!

It should be banned immediately and if people choose to marry a cousin in Pakistan they should be told plainly that the whole family should expect to live in Pakistan, even if they themselves were born in Britain. The fear of causing offence is seen as the great evil when in fact it's the cousin marriage and resulting severely disabled offspring living lives of misery that are the true evil.

That is interesting and reassuring, thank you for sharing.

I was in college in the 70's We learned there was a similar condition with a similar cause called "Orcadian Madness" found only in the Scottish islands. I believe there was a similar issue with the Pitcairn Islanders. And yes, we were also taught about the drop in genetic conditions that came about once bicycles became affordable. Such things are not widely discussed now for very good reasons.

So what?

Do you agree with cousin marriage?

The amount of money it costs society is beyond outrageous.

YANBU. There was a family at my school with multi-generation first cousin parents who had 6 children. The children all had the same genetic disorder, which meant they lived to infant school age (4-7) but died before the got old enough to go to junior school. The boy in my class was the only one who survived. The parents knew this but kept having children.

It's heartbreaking and should be made illegal to protect those who education doesn't reach.

Yeah it’s fun watching racists call other people racist isn’t it?

Reported for trolling

This gives me hope but change is so slow. I'm very happy you and your cousin made the right choice for your future happiness and more importantly future children.

This is what Iqbal Mohamed said during the debate tabled by Holden:

As the right hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Holden) states, there are documented health risks with first-cousin marriage, and I agree that there is a need for greater awareness about that issue. Virginity testing and forced marriages must be prevented, and the freedom of women must be protected at all times.

However, the way to redress the issue is not to empower the state to ban adults from marrying each other, not least because I do not think such measures would be effective or enforceable. Instead, the matter needs to be approached as a health awareness issue and, where women are being forced against their will to undergo marriage, as a cultural awareness issue. In doing so, it is important to recognise that this is a highly sensitive issue for many people. In discussing it, we should try to step into the shoes of those who perhaps are not from the same culture as ours, to better understand why the practice continues to be so widespread.

An estimated 35% to 50% of all sub-Saharan African populations either prefer or accept cousin marriage, and it is extremely common in the middle east and south Asia. The reason the practice is so common is that ordinary people see family intermarriage as something that is very positive overall; as something that helps to build family bonds and puts families on a more secure financial foothold.

However, as is well documented, it is not without health risks for the children of those relationships, some of whom will be born out of wedlock. Instead of stigmatising those who are in cousin marriages, or those who are inclined to be, a much more positive approach would be to facilitate advanced genetic test screening for prospective married couples, as is the case in all Arab countries in the Persian gulf, and to run health education programmes targeting those communities where the practice is most common.

I therefore urge the House to vote against the motion and to find a more positive approach to addressing the issues that are caused by first-cousin marriage, including the health risks, and the consequences of modern conflicts and displacement of populations around the world.

Link:

hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-12-10/debates/6A325A71-434B-42FF-AC9F-FF8C6FD85B00/Marriage(ProhibitedDegreesOfRelationship)Bill

That's a good point- risks increasing with maternal and paternal age- nobody is arguing that having children over a certain age should be illegal (including me btw).
Another issue is that many Bangladeshi couples have a religious but not a legal ceremony. A ban wouldn't make any difference then.
But the main issue is the first one, that it's a very slippery slope and adds to the overall negative attitude towards those with disabilities- that it's avoidable and people are to blame.

Irish travellers have high levels of cousin marriage too. In Ireland something like 2 in every 5 traveller marriages are cousin marriages with up to 70% involving some form of consanguinity, I'd imagine it's the same in the UK.

These things are so engrained into some cultures that just banning it isn't going to work. Like someone else said perhaps more information and encouragement around genetic testing is the way forward. People won't put themselves forward though if it is shrouded in shame, open conversations need to be had but there is no reason that it can't be done from a place of education rather than 'eww gross, cousin marriage'.

The queen married her second cousin.

It wasn’t ‘very’ common, it was still a rarity.

Now we know about genetics and the reasons why children are being born with serous disabilities, there is no excuse for allowing it.

I haven’t called anyone racist? I genuinely don’t know what you’re on about.

I agree with truth and integrity. I’m not a fan of liars or racists - make of that what you will. And FYI: a brown person has just as much right to question the government and make an alternative suggestion to a potential policy change as a white person. I appreciate that might be galling to some but them’s the breaks.

Umm I don’t think it is just people who are “shipped over” as you so delightfully put it. Wasn’t it quite common in the royal family too until very recently? Queen Elizabeth II was third cousins with Phillip. Queen Victoria was first cousins with Albert. I’m sure there are many more lesser royals too.

Trolling who 😂?? What on earth are you on about?

What does who I vote for have anything to do with a professional I know’s take on the situation

What is your point? What has Iqbal Mohamed done since to address this in his community?