1st cousin marriage

[Wiseplumnet]

AIBU to ask your opinion on 1st cousin marriage?.I have read that the government is looking to ban it. I know it is more prevelent ( but declining) in the UK among people of Asian origin. I am not coming from a judgemental or racist angle. I am just interested to know how mum'snetters of all ethnicities feel about marriage between 1st cousin's. I know it used to be more common in the west at one time, apart from keeping money/property in families, people travelled less widely, so there was less choice of marriage partners.I worked with a girl ( White British) who was in a secret relationship with her 1st cousin and they are very reluctant to tell their family, so there seems to be a cultural taboo in 1st cousins being romantically involved.Genetic factors resulting in disabilities (statistically twice as many as in unrelated parents) is sometimes given as a reason for banning cousin marriage, however we have genetic screening now, and disabilities aren't always serious.As so many babies died in infancy before we had vaccines, better health care etc , it was probably difficult to differentiate whether the close relationship between parents was the cause of any disabilities their children . Speaking for myself,I can't imagine wanting to marry any of the cousins I was brought up with as they seem more like brothers to me, but I could understand why someone may be attracted to a 1st cousin who they first met as adults. Or does it give you the instant 'Yuk' ? Also is banning 1st cousin marriage the same as banning 1st cousin sexual relationships and children, or would that become illegal? Maybe there's no need for a legal ban as the tradition will just die out over time

It's very normal in some cultures, especially Islamic. I remember reading that in Saudi Arabia something like half of marriages are between first cousins.

In 2010 I worked in Saudi Arabia for six months - even back them the issue was openly discussed in some of the newspapers. There was a medical conference where I worked which I couldn't attend but read that the general tenet for discussion was that first-cousin marriage can cause problems

The Darwin cousin marriage is interesting because. Even though he lived before the discovery of DNA, and even though his children had no known inherited diseases, he blamed the death of his beloved daughter on the fact that he and his wife were cousins. He felt it might have resulted in his daughter having a weaker constitution.

Many ancient societies have customs that effectively prevent diseases that result from consanguineous relationships. Traditional aboriginal societies split tribes into moieties. Everyone within the same moiety is viewed as if they are a sibling from a marriage perspective. The system tracks diagonally over time. This forces exogamy, and in turn means that aboriginal populations have a very low prevalence of genetic diseases. They didn’t know about modern genetics, but they did know what resulted in healthy babies.

Well it wouldn’t be for me but I don’t think it should be banned. As OP said the genetic risks are about double that of 2 unrelated people having a baby together but there is still something like a 95% probability that any children will be perfectly healthy.

Except they aren’t. Over successive generations they compound.

I believe it should be banned. Could a genetic test for relationship status pre marriage be a solution rather than a records search?

You may be on shaky ground here for a start the Hapsburgs were an Austrian dynasty, so one look at the map of Europe should solve that issue for you. Also there is a history of consanguineous marriage in your own presidents ( Strangely enough though, not in the present incumbent) I can also pick out an US citizen before they speak because of their huge arses ( Butts)

Yes, that guesstimated 95% is assuming that the cousins who are having a baby together are the children of unrelated couples. It is fairly uncommon for cousins to hook up so this is usually likely to be the case, at least in white British culture. I can’t speak of other cultures.

Queen Elizabeth and Phillip were cousins on both sides of their family (though 2nd and 3rd, not 1st) both were descended from Victoria and Albert.

Kindly - how? My children have different names to their first cousins. Its more than just looking at birth certificates surely?

"Our own royal family is the result of people marrying first cousins for generations, so lol at all the comments of “inbreeding”."

No it isn't. In modern times there was Queen Victoria who married her first cousin Prince Albert. And that was it.

There was also George IV who married his first cousin Princess Caroline while he was Prince of Wales. But they only had one daughter who died herself before George IV became king.

The house of hanova (changed name to Windsor during ww1) was not part of the house of habsburgs nor were the stuarts or tudors before them.
The British population never has habsburg jaw nor do we have bulging eyes so please take you illinformed racist bs elsewhere

Most laws rely on trust and are investigated if there is evidence they are broken.

Don't be ridiculous love. America is Home of the Inbreds. Who do you think is voting for Trump?

This is a very sensible compromise

It would be simple to check the parents out as they are named on the birth certificate and check that they are not siblings its all on the registrars database and its registrars who give out marriage licenses.
If theres any doubts a simple dna test would answer those questions if needed

If you're only argument for not banning it is that 'it is hard to enforce' and 'queen Victoria did it' then that is a pretty weak to be honest.

1st cousin marriage is incest. That should be reason enough. It also comes with additional unpleasant things like arranged marriage, family pressures or forcing young people, particularly girls, into marriage. And yes this applies to both certain Asian communities and the royal family historically. And probably other communities too.

This is clearly a wind up but just to your point here

"As an American, my state is bigger than your Island so I understand the dating pool is small."

The most populous state in the USA is California. There are around 39 million people living in California.

The population of the UK is around 70 million. So we have around 80% more people in the UK than there are in California.

Or are you just talking about physical size? California has a total land area of about 156,000 square miles. The UK is much smaller at 94,300 square miles, about 40% smaller.

So the UK has 80% more people in 40% less space than California and so much less spread out. I don't think that's such a small dating pool.

Yeh agree it’s irrelevant. Times move on.

It also creates problems for women within a marriage as they do not even have the option of leavinh and going back to their own family as it is one big family. Cousin marriage creates clans.