When Cousins Marry

[kat1]

Did anyone watch this program on channel 4 last night? It's about muslims marrying their first cousins & ending up with severly disabled kids. The poor thing, deaf,dumb,blind etc. The only MP who is against this & has the balls to speak about it is Ann Cryer, MP from my town.She has been campaining against this for years!

[Oneeyedvic]

The likelihood of mortality or disability of a child when the parents are first cousins are the same as if a mother is over 40. Does Ann Cryer campaign for mothers to be banned from giving birth after 40?

around 10% of the world marry their first cousins and in some countries, over 50% of the population are married to their first cousin and this has been 'normal' for generations. Not many countries where all the children are severally disabled

[kat1]

What a load of rubbish oneeye, you need to watch the program & get your facts right!

[pastafreak]

Oneeyed is correct in his statistics.....
Read this article...and note the following-"Professor Alan Bittles of the Centre for Comparative Genomics in Australia states that the risk of birth defects rises from roughly 2% in the general population to 4% for first cousins and therefore that "It would be a mistake to ban it."[123] Researcher Aamra Darr of the University of Leeds has also criticized what she called an "alarmist presentation of data" that exaggerates the risk.[124]."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage

As things stand-the US is the only country that bans it,and those bans vary from state to state.

[pastafreak]

Errmmm...no-I don't doc

lol

[Bbbananas]

It's all a bit darn queer.

[craft1948]

I used to fancy my cousin Alan.....

[Bbbananas]

And my brother used to fancy our cousin Carol. Actually, I think he still does...

[Bbbananas]

Would he have s@@@@@@ her though?

Err.... yes, probably.

[craft1948]

One of my mates married his long-term foster sister......nowt wrong but it seemed a bit weird.

[jno]

as I quoted on another thread, Queen Victoria was known as the grandmother of Europe because her children and grandchildren married into so many royal families. But she married her first cousin, Albert. There's some question over whether haemophilia was transmitted in her line (though nobody seems to have it now), but apart from that no disabled or otherwise unhealthy family members.

[pastafreak]

Charles Darwin married his cousin also.

Shock,horror.
Not that I would do it-but who's to judge?