Legislation to ban 1st Cousin Marriage

[VisitationRights]

Just saw this, Richard Holden has introduced legislation to ban 1st cousin marriage:
https://x.com/RicHolden/status/1865770931588612234

I think it is about time but wondering if the proposed legislation is likely to be supported or not.

The only MP who spoke against it was the MP for Dewsbury who clearly has his constituents breathing down his neck. His speech is incoherent and some of his comments are plain weird: "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."

He wants the NHS to pay for genetic screening: "a much more positive approach would be to facilitate advanced genetic test screening for prospective married couples". How about no to that?

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

I'm not sure I want to build family bonds by shagging my cousins Bloody hell.

Labour are completely in bed with Islamist leaders in this country. It’s really concerning.

Like the Forest of Dean, all of Norfolk, and various islands?

@nfk

"Like the Forest of Dean, all of Norfolk, and various islands?"

Maybe you think you're being funny but I find the issue of life threatening and life changing genetic abnormalities in babies and children that could easily be avoided by changing the incest laws along with the subsequent cost to the NHS to not be particularly amusing.

Presumably. since they did nothing to stop cousin marriage the Tories are too.

Have you actually looked at the genetics in the areas most affected? Over centuries

If you assume I am taking this lightly, you are mistaken

What I do object to is people making assumptions about which communities are involved, assuming it’s a new phenomenon and overlooking those where it has been a real issue stretching back into history

Someone needs to visit some of the adult day care centres in the north

You're the only one who has actually named any specific areas or communities. Nobody is making assumptions about which communities are involved. I deliberately kept my post vague on the subject.

I think it becomes a major issue when you have generations of cousins marrying cousins. I’m in favour of the ban

"He wants the NHS to pay for genetic screening: "a much more positive approach would be to facilitate advanced genetic test screening for prospective married couples". How about no to that?"

I'm not sure about this suggestion, realistically when children are born and suspected of having a developmental disorder genetic tests are ordered at NHS cost alongside the ongoing care and treatment for that child so perhaps it would be more proactive to fund testing preconception?

I think the ban is stupid. It takes centuries of 1st cousins marrying each other to have any noticeable impact. It is clearly being proposed just to target minority British groups.

The genetic risk of one couple being 1st cousins to their children only increases chance of congenital defects by 1-2% compared to unrelated couples. (the chance of first cousins having children with a birth defect is 4-7%, vs. 3-4% for a non-consanguineous couple) Having a baby at 40 instead of 25 causes a much higher increase in risk,(eg 1,250% increase in risk for Downs), are we going to ban geriatric pregnancy for any woman over age 39? I mean if this is really based in health concerns of children shouldn’t we address the higher risks of geriatric pregnancies?

Besides, as many married couples are child free as have children. Why should a law on marriage be passed on the assumption you will definitely have biological children?

I think it's ridiculous. What's the point of it? If they want to address forced abd arranged marriages then actually address that.
Making cousins marrying illegal just makes no sense.. what's the argument for it? Like I said on the other thread if we are approaching from a generic angle then how come it's not illegal for people with hereditary genetic issues to marry who aren't cousins? In fact the chances of offspring having genetic problems from one set of cousins marrying and having kids are far lower than many genetic issues kids may have from parents who are not cousins but have hereditary issues..
You'd be straying into eugenics there.. where is the line going to be drawn? Can people with down syndrome marry and have children? Can deaf people? People with dwarfism? Etc etc.. it's a slippery slope to try and change the law based on genetics...
Cousins have been able to marry in the UK for a very long time.. there needs to be a more sound argument to change the law than this.
So the main thing for me would be the high incidence of it in certain cultures where it is coerced or forced. But here the main issue to address is the coercion and force. Imo you make the coercion illegal and you fight that with education and outreach.
Making marriage between cousins illegal seems like a waste of time and money and it also seems morally unsound if you are approaching it from the genetics angle. Just a gimmick or sticking plaster trying to address a different issue.

This.
I'm glad to see someone being reasonable. There wasn't alot of that on the other thread.. just people saying it was gross.
I'm not sure laws should be made about who people can marry on the basis of other people thinking it's ick.

Oh hi Reform/ the EDL. We missed ya.

“”700 children are born with disabilities due to cousin marriages.1 in 10 children of cousin marriages will die at birth or have life long medical difficulties - Many of these kids will not see their teens.”

Fake statistic alert ‼️

Absolutely ..I could say a lot more but better not

Hope you had your kids before 30, otherwise you were just as irresponsible by delaying pregnancy to a later age.

Literally the racist playbook.

personally I don’t agree with cousin marriage if it bears children and persists over several generations.

but this frothing on MN? Not genuine. It’s the new trigger issue replacing independent schools, inheritance tax and ‘small boats’.

You can read the Wikipedia article about cousin marriage and get a fair few eye opening statistics from there...
One of them being that the genetic risk to children born from a first cousin partnership is the same as the genetic risk to children born to mothers over 40.....
Do you think it should be illegal for women over 40 to have children???

You can't make a coherent genetic argument for making marriage between cousins illegal. The real statistics do not back it up.

”Pakistani children have 13% higher chance of being born with disabilities than other children..” because the Pakistani ethnic minority is more likely to live in material and social deprivation which causes a slightly higher deprivation rate of disabilities for this ethnic group.

The total severe material and social deprivation* rate of disabilities for all groups is 11.0% compared with 4.9% for all groups*

They are not 'trigger' issues. They issues people have genuine concerns about.

I think the doctors that have been dealing with this since the 80s know better than you. And there are plenty of statistics littered around this thread.

So absolutely nothing to do with the genetic make up of having children with your cousin / who may share genetic abnormalities?

There is so much online from Muslim communities who are worried about this issue to deny it.

No it doesn’t take centuries. Studies were done on Huntingtons disease in Scotland and cousins marrying cousins. it only took 2-3 generations to see an increase.

This issue for today is it’s not the one generation that doctors are worried about, it’s repeated generations of marriage of cousins and it becoming the norm.