First cousin marriage

[Sprinklewithsugar]

Trying to understand why this still happens in the UK between educated, intelligent people. Especially when the risks of genetic inbreeding are well known, not to mention the pressure it puts on the NHS.
Why do people opt to marry close cousins when there are surely other prospective spouses available?
Why do intelligent, educated people take part in such customs?
Genuinely curious.

Yes, I know. But I'm saying that if it's made illegal, women are liable not to answer honestly, for fear of prosecution. We have this problem with other questions we ask at booking (I'm a midwife) - women are afraid that we'll report them to the authorities and withhold information.
If women don't tell us they're related to their partner, we won't offer them the appropriate screening.

Fine by me. Stops a potential slip or deliberate step into language that likens groups/women to animals rather than full humans and can lead logically on to what happens with livestock - culling defective stock/introducing new bloodlines.

Why have you framed the word inbreeding as the problem in this equation and assumed it is an assessment on the worth and value of the women and their genetically vulnerable offspring when it is the practice itself, when it is culturally informed, which tends to be led by an understanding of women as chattel and a resource to be controlled. It's not the word that is the problem.

Dear God, the article you linked mentions historical royal marriages and examples like “The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge: 11th cousins, once removed”? Your point is?

Thats so sad, I do find that people who purport to be anti-racist often don’t really give a fuck about women, especially minority women.

Then I suppose you make it an offence to knowingly conceal knowledge that your child is the product of incest. Obviously some people will not know but clearly if you are aware of your family tree or had reason to believe you are related then you should put a stop to it.

all the debates I have have been reacting to recently always invoke a degree of we know there is a problem but we can’t do XYZ as it may cause some people problems and all I keep thinking is, I honestly don’t have a problem with the criminalising people who knowingly do wrong. The baby is the victim here- having the threat of prison should make people have think and know what they are doing is wrong.

I'm Asian. Thing is when the families are so interbred (is that the right word?) then what would happen is that families would say "oh they aren't first cousins, they're second aunts and uncles" anything to get them married. Money, reputation and faith is more important.

Insest?

Is incest less emotive than inbreeding? I wouldn't have thought so.

Ban it, ban it now.

I might be wrong, but I think incest only applies to the immediate bloodline i.e. brother, sister, father, mother, uncles/aunts and grandparents.

The article is entitled “Royals Who Married Their Relatives” so I imagine the author’s point was to list the royals she was aware of who had married their relatives.

My mum has two sisters who's kids are together.

I think it's fucking weird

I could never marry my first cousin. He was like my brother when we were kids and it would feel 100% wrong.

I think thats a fair point, but I also think that the shame of possible prosecution may put a stop to it or at least encourage families to marry more distant cousins instead. Awareness campaigns have definitely had an impact, I knew a few Pakistani women when I was younger who flat refused to entertain the idea of ,marrying a cousin. However they weren’t from the kind of families that would force marriage either so I think probably the most vulnerable would still be vulnerable.

Both 3rd cousins and 2nd cousins once removed, tho 2 different sets of parents. I don't have the time or inclination to do a degree of consanguinity calculation.

There are some academic papers on this topic. I found them while assisting an elderly friend of a friend sort out her "complicated" birth story.

DNA testing of children is turning up some interesting stuff and GPs and social services are having to make some interesting decisions.

It's a grim practice as well. How would you describe it?

I didn’t say that all Pakistanis are thick but within their community it is considered normal to marry your cousin - actively encouraged in fact. You can’t say that is an intelligent thing to do as we know the birth defects it causes, and then they continue to do it with profound disabilities becoming the norm. It’s barbaric

When intelligence and education is taken out of the equation, which I agree we can in this day and age, then what does that leave you with? Cowardice in the face of conformity, apathy, callousness?

Yeah, but half of those who find a partner born in the same city are getting 11th cousin or closer. At some moment the point turned ridiculous.

The thread is about 1st cousin marriages, and the article covers the 1st cousin marriages in the royal family., which is why I posted it. The article also covers marriages which aren’t 1st cousin, and are therefore not relevant to the thread.

What is the relevance of head coverings here?

I know 2 different Pakistani families where first cousins married. 1 older generation but 1 younger generation. These are just ones I know personally of. Younger generation have 2 DC both with autism. I'm sure there are more we know but not privy to this knowledge because ds plays cricket in a predominately Pakistan cricket team. Most families seem to have 4 or 5 DC and there is quite a lot of disability within this general group but I don't know how much is down to cousins marrying. I do know several attend special schools and several from the same families too.

Look what happened to the Hapsburg family. Horrible. They interbred for generations to keep money, land and power in the family and ended up in a Hiils Have Eyes nightmare.