To think first-degree cousins should not marry?

[Onestonetogo]

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And again there could be a whole ne debate as to whether a genetically stable population is actually a good or bad thing!

All pedigree breeds are of course the result of successive inbreeding, which is why the breeder has to be very conscious to fully screen the animals for any recessive traits even hidden ones. Apparently a rather high proportion of Dalmatians are born deaf. The price of your perfectly healthy spotty dog is the death of a great many puppies found to be deaf at birth. Obviously you cannot do the same with people!

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Onestonetogo, you said "it's not me who's sleeping with my cousin" so you obviously find it disgusting. You are arguing that people with known inheritable diseases should be allowed to breed as long as they are not related. You're not doing a very good job of disguising your real problem/hangup.

Onagar, have you read the whole thread? Onestone's post of Sat 07-Mar-09 20:38:35 summed up a lot of what had been said, and how she'd re-thought some of her original ideas. It was a nice end to a thread. At the time!

I still can't get the reason why one should marry a cousin. It makes the hairs on my skin stand.

SpinSpin - Hereditary NF is caused by a dominant autosomal gene.

This means if you have the faulty gene you have the illness - nowhere for it to hide. If you get the bad gene from your parents you have teh disease. If you are not affected you cannot pass it on to your offspring.

LenLen Often (but not always) cousins that marry did not know that they were cousins when they fall in love - so that accounts for many.