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

The main issue with this is the birth risks and severe genetic complications for the children.

First cousins having children together is not too serious from a genetic standpoint, if it happens as a one-off. Serious issues occur (and quite quickly) when it happens repeatedly over generations, and deleterious genes become fixed in the population.

It’s actually falling.

The number of people in Bradford's Pakistani community who have married a cousin has fallen sharply in the past 10 years, a study suggests. Higher educational attainment, new family dynamics and changes in immigration rules are thought to be possible reasons.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67422918

Endogamy does not mean marrying your cousin.

Endogamy is marrying within the same religious community (so Jewish girls being introduced to suitable Jewish boys, or Mormons meeting other Mormons at university), or within a caste in India, or within other small communities like on islands. Yes there is some degree of relationship sometimes between the pair but not as close as first cousins.

Third or fourth cousins is a very distant relationship. There is a lot of misunderstanding about these terms and what things like "removed" mean. https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/cousin-chart Fourth cousins share great great great grandparents. For me, my GGG grandfather on the paternal line was born in 1797 and had 11 kids. Any descendant of any of these lines would be my 4th cousin. I'd share about 0.2% of DNA with them. Not an issue.

I don't think anyone should be sent to jail for marrying their cousin!
I think there should be more education and imams- who should know better- should be fined.

But 'down the generations' starts with one marriage....
And a cousin marriage might well be a 2nd or 3rd generation cousin marriage.

It’s a thing that my family all know about but keep under wraps - my paternal grandparents were first cousins. They didn’t know each other growing up but met as adults and fell in love. Went on to have 6 children and 11 grandchildren - no genetic disease at all. My aunt is horribly unhappy with people knowing, my dad doesn’t really care.

i think I’d ban it if given the choice - too many children who are born to cousins who were also the offspring of cousins in the immigrant communities. I was a teacher and a lot of families I knew had at least one profoundly disabled child. Not fair on the kids at all.

I am from an Asian family but there is no cousin marriage in my family. However when I was growing up my mum had two friends. Both had married their cousins. One had a non-verbal child who needed lots of care. The other had four kids, two who had some disorder, I don’t know what. One died age 2 and one died at 18 after being in residential care. It was horrific.

I was a child then and I have no idea if it was related to cousin marriage or not but goodness it was tragic.

Never seen it amongst white people, although i guess it does hsppen, but its prevailent within the Asian community. Theres a huge risk of having children who are disabled when inter family marrisages ocurr, so clearly not normal.

Fair enough - what is the basis for making laws against who can fall in love and marry?

We have moral and cultural repugnance for incest - but that may well be based in an instinctive avoidance of in-breeding.
If we don't count the risk of genetic issues, what is our legal basis for banning cousin marriage?

I remember a study though from years back that said cousin marriage actually presented the same risk as women over 34 having a baby. I think it was trying to put the risk into perspective. But I would still have it banned.

Queen Victoria's haemophilia gene was most likely a spontaneous mutation and nothing to do with who she married. The gene was then,unwittingly, passed into the royal houses of Europe through various marriages.

Generation after generation of inbreeding massively increases the chances of children with severe disabilities. It really needs to be banned.

«and disabilities aren't always serious“

ffs🙄

How can they face prosecution when there is no law against the marriage?

I suggest anyone thinking there is no problem watches some YouTubes on The Whittakers, an extended family from Virginia. It is tragic.

I only know of one person who married their first cousin - They had three children, all blind.

I also remembering watching a documentary about first cousin marriages and the associated reasons fot it and the issues it brings.

Available here, if anyone is interested:

There needs to be a lot more education in the communities that practice cousin marriage regularly. The genetic conditions that result in severely disabled babies & stillbirths shouldn’t be underestimated. Genetic screening could save so much heartbreak (and money).

I’m not sure banning would work as I agree that the marriages will just be moved overseas. Also how would you prove you were unrelated?

Pakistan has the highest rate in the world, India's is lower as it is not so common among Hindus

This isn’t really about marriage though is it? It’s about whether people then have children, which they can do without getting married. So you’d have to extend the scope of incest laws. Much harder to implement

It's lazy as f*ck
Find a husband somewhere other than your nans at sunday lunch.
Ick

What is often missed in discussion and by those stating cousin marriage is no big risk is that they're researching the risks of one cousin single marriage.

The research they shoudl be looking at is for is the risk involved when there is cultural and society level of first cousin marriages ie. both parents are the products of first cousin marriages themselves and so on through the wider family. It is the cumulative effect which is the issue and why saying it only the same risk as an older woman having a baby is wrong.

One of the reasons Sweden banned it also was because it creates a clan structure which is impossible to police as loyalities are not with wider society but with their clan and conflict with state laws etc.

There is also the issue of forced marriage and abuse that we're all aware of and the resulting honour killings that can happen.

When a law is passed prohibiting it obviously.

The Hindu Marriage Act- covering Hindus in India- prohibits cousin marriage, even amongst third or fourth cousins.

DH's son married his first cousin. Second child was born with hip dysplasia which was genetic.