Is it safe to marry your third cousin?
Is it safe to marry your third cousin?
It's legal in all 50 states to marry a cousin who's your second cousin or further. But according to a new study out of the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, it's not just legal, it's smart. And as a result, marriages between third and fourth cousins produce more children and grandchildren than other couples.
Why is it bad for cousins to marry?
Children of first-cousin marriages have an increased risk of autosomal recessive genetic disorders, and this risk is higher in populations that are already highly ethnically similar. Children of more distantly related cousins have less risk of these disorders, though still higher than the average population.
Is it a sin to marry your cousin?
The laws of many countries regarding prohibited relationships do not necessarily follow the biblical prohibitions nor those of any particular church. The Bible does not, for example, forbid cousins from marrying, but it does prohibit sexual relations with several other close relatives.
Why close relatives should not marry?
The problem in such close relative marriages surfaces when one of the partners carries a defect in any of the genes associated with some form of illness. When you marry within the community with one who may also have such a family defect, the child inherits two copies of this faulty gene, and thus has the defect.
