Marry first cousin

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I'm a guy, 26, and is interested with my first cousin, that is my mother's elder sister's daughter. She is 28. We have had some relationship and I think we are compatible. Is it okay if I marry her? What is the medical risk? Thanks.

-- Curious Guy (curiousguy4@hotmail.com), March 05, 2003

Answers

Aside from moral issues the offspring of the union would within five generations show abnormal devolpment(s). Eg: mental retardation - physical disorders such as fingers and toes " not quite right " facial features bland and bone structure damaged.

A prime example is shown in the movie " Deliverance " where the young boy playing the banjo is a product of familial breeding.

-- jean bouchard (jeanb@cwk.imag.net), March 05, 2003.


This would be specifically forbidden by Canon law and illegal in most places. But on another note, I recently read something in the news where a city in the US was working to change laws to allow for marrying of first cousins. Sorry for not remembering the details, but there were a large number of people who lived there from a particular nationality where such a thing was common. The report also mentioned that marrying of first cousins did not have the risks with birth defects and other problems as once supposed.

But the church has traditionally seen this as a danger to the family unit. You don't want to allow dating and marriage with those you live with. But with today's society the way that it is and if it is true that there are not serious medical risks, is this a matter of Church discipline that could be up for review?

So the answer is that at this time in history, NO, it is not OK for you to marry her. But I would like to discuss the question I raise above on this matter.

God bless!

-- Hollis (catholic@martinsen.com), March 05, 2003.


Aside from moral issues the offspring of the union would within five generations show abnormal devolpment(s). Eg: mental retardation

How about the fact that it's just plain creepy?

-- jake (jake1@pngusa.net), March 06, 2003.


I'm a guy, 26, and is interested with my first cousin, that is my mother's elder sister's daughter. She is 28. We have had some relationship and I think we are compatible. Is it okay if I marry her? What is the medical risk? Thanks.

You must be joking , it's just sick !!!!

If you could marry your cousin , what about the next generation ??

Greets from a NON BELIEVER:

-- Laurent LUG (.@...), March 06, 2003.


The moral aspects are pretty clearcut and are adequately addressed above, and in another thread. The biological aspects are not really the subject matter of this forum, but since that topic has been raised and since I have some familiarity with it, a few thoughts ... In fact, medical/genetic aberrations resulting from biological inbreeding are unlikely in any randomly selected family out of the general population; but still, the theoretical risk of certain genetically mediated conditions is substantially higher in marrying a close relative than in marrying a biologically unrelated person. The problem is that certain genetic traits are recessive in nature, which means, among other things, that a person will not develop that trait unless he/she receives a gene for that trait from BOTH the mother AND the father. A person who has only one gene for the trait will not express it. Since most such genes are rare in the general population, the likelihood of two unrelated persons carrying the same recessive gene for the same rare trait is extremely small - not impossible, but probably a chance in a million or less. However, genetic traits, recessive or otherwise, tend to run in families, which is why members of a family tend to look alike. Therefore, if a given recessive gene actually IS present in a given family, and members of that family do interprocreate, the probability that both parents will carry the gene is thereby greatly increased. However, familial intermarriage in general does not pose a very high risk simply because such genes are rare in the general population, and therefore the statistical likelihood of a given randomly selected family carrying such a rare recessive gene is small. Let's say that the risk of a given trait in marrying an unrelated person may carry a theoretical risk of one in a million. Marrying a close relative, without prior knowledge of a given recessive trait being present, may increase the risk substantially. But even if the risk is increased a hundredfold, the probability is still only one in several thousand - not terribly high when applied to a specific case, but significantly serious from a world population viewpoint, and certainly worth addressing through moral and civil law. However, intermarriage in a family already KNOWN to carry such a recessive gene may increase the risk of expression tremendously, even as high as 1 in 4.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), March 06, 2003.


What about Adam and Eves kids? How did that ever work out? Maybe we are all the product of a similar situation. Maybe we all have abnormalities. As weird as it seems, isn't it how we all got here?

-- P Diddy (pdiddy@hotmail.com), March 07, 2003.

Although the posts with profanity will eventually be deleted, the Adam and Eve tangent will probably remain. Therefore, let me just state that Adam and Eve were definitely distinct (and real) persons whom we have all descended from. There are many ways to tie this in with the THEORY of evolution.

Rather than sidetrack this thread any more than it already is, here is an earlier thread where this subject was discussed.
Adam and Eve

-- Glenn (glenn@nospam.com), March 11, 2003.

I do not see anything wrong with it as long as you are in love. The only issue MAY be children. However, I know several couples who are first cousins and they have the most beautiful children I have ever seen.....with no medical problems at all!!

-- Brenda Williams (teaparties4bears@yahoo.com), February 19, 2004.

I have the same problem you do, except I am considerably younger then you are and probaly shouldn't even be thinking about marriage, but I want to spend the rest of my life with my 1st cousin becuase I love him. I have been searching for an answer to the question if the Cathlic church allows 1st cousin marriage, but when it comes to that in the book of Leviticus it states every one you can not have intercourse with cousin are not stated. Also on quite a few occaisons God commanded people to marry their cousins. But it is very difficult for me to tell people that the person I am in love with is my cousin, and for all you haters out there who think that those of us who may have actually found true love and that it just happens to have been our cousin are sick or disgusting, you are all just ignorant and have never felt true love. think about it this way, if the person you are in love with right now were your cousin, you would still love them right? what is in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet right? Curious_guy, I fully support you, you may have been meant to be with your cousin, thats why you may have been cousins, so that you could be with eachother and fall in love. You know what? the medical risks only increase by 1-2% when you have children with your 1st cousin. unless of course the persons family has had severaly marriages of this kind in its past. best wishes and good luck! Desert_rose802

-- Desert_rose802 (desert_rose802@yahoo.com), November 08, 2004.

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