Should Marriage Between First Cousins Be Banned?

[dave50]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14173033/risks-inbreeding-marrying-cousin-genetic-conditions.html

[naomi24]

Yes.

[max137]

Most definitely the gene pool should be spreadfar and wide.

[barry1010]

How could it be enforced? Unless the couple volunteer the information, how would the authorities know?

[MandyMooMoo]

There are plenty of children born with genetic disorders whose parents aren't cousins. Maybe genetic screening is the answer. Not everyone knows their cousins, I have plenty I have never met. How do you police that? 

[barry1010]

I would prefer first cousins didn't marry but I am equally concerned about 'super sperm donors' who have helped over 100 women get pregnant with no regulations or record. There may  be a risk of related people unknowingly coupling up.  One man claims to have 'helped' more than 800 women have babies

[max137]

barry1010 14:54 we are talking about people knowingly prosecuting marriage between first cousins.

[davebro3]

I don't really care - this country & much of the rest of the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Thankfully I won't be around to see it.😈

[jackthehat]

Yes.

[barry1010]

Would compulsory genetic testing before marriage be acceptable or practical?

[Ellipsis]

First cousins having children together should ideally be banned, but I'm not sure where marriage comes into it these days ...

[barry1010]

The first cousins often marry to legally protect family assets. Without marriage it is more difficult to do that 

[Ellipsis]

But if two people want to spend their lives together and have children together, and marriage is banned, then they can still spend their lives together and have children together.  So what's being banned is not really what the issue is ...

[max137]

It is also a contract at birth amongst certain demographics.

[max137]

We all know without saying it what we are  talking about.

[New Judge]

“Not everyone knows their cousins, I have plenty I have never met.”

You may not have met them, but are you saying you do not know all the children of your parents’ siblings?
 

[bhg481]

I was adopted so I can categorically say I will almost certainly have cousins I have no knowledge of.

My wife was the 24th of 24 single births; she only knew the eldest (who was married by the time she was born) and one in the middle.

[bhg481]

Sorry - wife's mother, not my wife.

[Atheist]

max... has mentioned the Elephant (without actually naming it).

What part does the Elephant play in deciding whether or not to introduce a law which restricts human instincts and forbids some people who love each other from committing themselves to lifelong lovey-dovey fidelity? Are we proposing a form of apartheid, or Starmerish fascism/ultra-anti-wokeism?

Did I just get lost there?

Free speech but no free love?

 

 

[bhg481]

I think it's just possible to have children without being married.

[jourdain2]

Of course it is, bhg.  The problem is, yet again, cultural.  Cousins in western cultures have sometimes married - dicey, but generally enough 'other' genetic material prevents disasters.  Some royal/aristocratic families suffered  - keeping possessions/power in the family I suppose.

It's a growing problem here because of the major increase in the  size of the S. Asian Muslim communities.  Cousin marriage is very, very common and the whole community is at risk - gene pool not big enough.

In the 1980s I visited a local 'School for the Deaf in Bradford - it had been there for years and years, I'd visited for an open day fundraiser as a kid myself - this time it was crammed with multiply-handicapped Pakistani children for whom deafness was just one of their problems.  The staff were in despair.

First cousins marrying is dicey, but when their parents were also first cousins and any new imports from Pakistan for arranged marriages are also cousins...etc.... etc......

I think I've mentioned before a 14 yr. old ESN Pakistani girl who disappeared from school and had been sent beck to Pakistan to marry a 40 year old cousin whose wife had died. 

It seems harsh, but I would vote to forbid marriage of such relatives for everyone.  If they breed without marriage (unlikely in a Muslim culture) - then they must accept responsibility for the care of their offspring, whether handicapped or not.