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.

The Hills have Eyes! 😁 Your history books were clearly more exciting than mine.

Look what happened to the Hapsburg family. Horrible. They interbred for generations to keep money, land and power in the family

They didn't just marry their cousins - Philip II of Spain married his niece, Anna of Austria. She had five children, only one of whom survived to adulthood, becoming Philip III. Of course, in the 16th century there were many reasons why a child might not survive; it might not have been due to inbreeding. The Hapsburg jaw was already in evidence by then, though, in portraits of Philip and his predecessor, the Emperor Charles V.

Edit: And even in Catherine of Aragon, although portraits of her are somewhat more flattering.

My parents are cousins. Nothing to do with culture or religion, they simply fell in love.
I am completely healthy.
However my sister died when she was 3 months old because multiple genetic disorders. My both kids have lots of health issues....I strongly believe it should be banned.

I might be not 100% correct but first child has less risk to have any issues, health problems, etc. Everything comes with second child. I know couple of families who have perfectly healthy first born and rest of the kids have issues.

It’s around 130 years since a member of the British Royal Family married a first cousin so no idea why they’re being brought into this discussion.

I think it does have relevance. Particularly if you look medical conditions. The Hapsburgs are obviously impacted by cousin marriage.

But then look at the UK, Victoria and Albert were first cousins, their first eight children appear to have been totally healthy and then Leopold turns up with Haemophilia.

I know Victoria had more than one daughter that carried haemophilia, but they would have looked perfectly healthy.

There was some understanding at the time of how things could be passed on but I wonder if anyone thought cousin marriage had anything to do with it?

I don’t think they did. A different area of medicine, but when she married there was no understanding of disease at all. The main theories were still medieval humours and miasma.

Also, it’s worth remembering that a single incident of cousin marriage is low-risk. The problem comes when multiple generations engage in cousin marriage. The Catholic Church had banned cousin marriage in the 6th century under Pope Gregory the Great. Not just first cousin, but anything up to sixth cousins ( that’s sharing a set of great great great great great grandparents). Not for medical reasons. Almost certainly for political reasons. It transformed European society by broadening familial connections, breaking down tribal structures and making loyalty to the nation state greater than to the tribe. This reduce corruption and allied meritocracy to flourish. But it also has the benefit of reducing the risk of genetic disease. Somehow this all got forgotten when the church lost much of its power after the Enlightenment, but cousin marriage was still only an occasional occurrence. This is evident from the fact that in most countries ( the U.K. included) the population still test as an average of about fifth or sixth cousins. In some parts of the world consanguinity is much closer.

They weren’t….

@Genevieva there was some understanding of genetics though. When it was discovered Leopold (I think) had haemophilia she is said to have said, "This condition isn't known in my family"

When her granddaughter gave birth the the tsarevich Alexei she was to have been dreading the idea that she would give birth to a boy would inherit the disease.

There was a basic understanding of heritability. But they didn’t know how it worked and what was and wasn’t heritable. Obviously people aren’t stupid. They were capable of observing a pattern and drawing rational conclusions.

Selective breeding of livestock also helped with the understanding of inherited conditions.

I had a conversation with a friend who has five first cousins, but she referred to them as her first, second, third, fourth and fifth cousins. She didn't understand that "second cousin" didn't mean her second-eldest cousin. I suspect there are a few PPs who also don't understand this.

Education is the key here, and specifically education of women who have been brainwashed by religion and culture (in other words, gross misogyny) to accept that babies with disabilities are the mother's fault and/or the will of god.

A different area of medicine, but when she married there was no understanding of disease at all. The main theories were still medieval humours and miasma.

They knew about smallpox. And they began to understand about water-borne infections in the mid 1850s - Dr John Snow and the Broad Street Pump.