advice wanted on adoption/fostering

[ariel]

Im desperatly looking for some advice for my sister on adoption and fostering. She is almost 21 and in a long term stable relationship, the problem is its with our cousin. Although we know this is legal and they can marry they are both worried about possible affects on a child they conceive. So they are thinking about the possability of adoption .They live in southeren ireland so the rules on adoption could be differant there,any advice would be greatfully received.

Aren't they jumping the gun a bit? They would be better to get genetic counselling and find out if there is any reason they should not have biological children. If it is legal to marry it is probably OK to have children. They can arrange an appointment via their GP to their nearest centre.

I know two cousins who married who had two wonderful children, with no genetic problems at all.

I think they are going to get advice on that too, at the moment no desicion has been made on anything,their just beginning to look at all their possabilitys.

i dont think there's any genetic problem with cousins having children together, i think the problmes come only with brother and sister relationships.Not 100% sure but positive i read it somwhere

if they're 1st cousins it might be good to get tested for eg cystic fibrosis which a lot of us are carriers for but never find out, and the likelihood is higher for people who are so closely related.

The laws governing adoption have been relaxed in recent years so your sister shouldn't find it different from anyone else if she wants to adopt a child. Have a look at www.baaf.org.uk for information about adoption.

I think it is a lovely idea in itself as there are still lots of unwanted babies and children out there who desperately need loving homes. I wish your sister the very best.

I agree with rhubarb,Adoption is such a special thing. I think anyone who adopts must be a special person too. Many children are just sitting in foster homes wishing and praying for someone to call mommy and daddy. I would consider this especially if there could be a problem with having your own children. I know two couples who have adopted. One couple adopted a boy and a girl siblings and love them to pieces. The other couple adopted two seperate kids from different parents. A four year old boy and a 1 yr old girel both from birth. They are much loved children. Good luck in your future decisions.

sorry ariel I meant to refer my message to your sister.

Hi Ariel, all the research shows no probs/risks at all with cousins marrying and having children. I think they should go ahead and have babies if that's what they want.

Ariel, I logged onto yahoo and looked up alot of info on 1st cousins having children and all the info said you double your chances of having a child born with birth defects. I would check this out when you have some time. I typed in Birth Defects With Children of Blood Relatives. It said the closer you are to the blood relative the more the chance is. The closest being parent-child, brother-sister, cousin-cousin and so on. The most commom defect is down symdrom. I just wanted to share this with you.

Ariel, I logged onto yahoo and looked up alot of info on 1st cousins having children and all the info said you double your chances of having a child born with birth defects. I would check this out when you have some time. I typed in Birth Defects With Children of Blood Relatives. It said the closer you are to the blood relative the more the chance is. The closest being parent-child, brother-sister, cousin-cousin and so on. The most commom defect is down symdrom. I just wanted to share this with you.

thanks everyone all your advice is greatfully received, i will pass it all on.

Sorry to contradict you threeangels, but the best and most recent research on this is in the US Journal of Genetic Counselling, which paints a very different picture to your very scary and inaccurate one. The base rate of defects in the general population is around 3-4% ie 3-4% of all babies born have a defect of some kind. This may not be at all serious -eg birthmark, extra toe etc. The babies of first cousins have a very minor additional risk of between 1.7% and 2.8%, which means at the very worst, 6.8% of their babies will have a defect and 93.2% will be perfect. This is a TINY additional risk, and the report concluded that it was not significant and that cousins needed to take no more care than other couples when conceiving. Good luck to your cousins. May they have happy, healthy babies.

PS I can't do links but to read more either log onto Google and type in Journal of Genetic Counseling or http//12.31.13.107/HealthNews/reuters/NewsStory0404200228.html

Aloha.Thank you for the site i will pass it on , i hope it helps my sister, theres so much contradicting (spelling?) advice about this you just dont know where to start looking.