Is it really that bad to marry my cousin Am I Normal with Mona Chalabi

there are things we accept as obvious

truths that aren’t necessarily backed up

by data for example the idea that cousin

marriage is to use a scientific term

icky

first off cousin marriage is way more

common than you may think approximately

10 of the world’s families are headed by

couples who are second cousins or closer

that’s more than 750 million people and

it may be worldly out of fashion in

europe and north america now but like

hoop skirts and top hats cousin marriage

used to be a much more common sight

people like charles darwin edgar allan

poe and albert einstein all married

their first cousins president franklin

delano roosevelt married his fifth

cousin eleanor roosevelt she didn’t even

have to change her last name one study

looking at millions of genealogy

profiles concluded that between 1650 and

1850 the average person was fourth

cousins with their spouse i know i know

what the hell is her fourth cousin well

it basically means that the average

person had the same great great great

grandparent as their romantic partner so

why was that well marrying a cousin

meant keeping money and power within the

family and maintaining your social

relationships it was also about

proximity if you aren’t traveling far in

your young life you’re more likely to

end up with someone you already know

like a second cousin but even with the

onset of the railroad and the industrial

revolution it still took another 50

years for cousin marriage to go out of

style in western society mobility may

have played a factor but researchers

also think that greater autonomy for

women and smaller family sizes meaning

that they were just fewer cousins to

marry also influenced the change though

it became much less popular on both

sides of the atlantic it was only in the

us that it became illegal following the

civil war the american government took a

greater interest in overseeing more

elements of daily life including

marriage american states began to outlaw

not only interracial marriage but cousin

marriage as well today 32 states either

outright ban the practice or restricted

to those who seek genetic counselling

are beyond reproductive age or are

sterile it’s estimated that less than

one percent of american couples are

cousins but the widespread illegality

not to mention the social stigma makes

quantifying it quite difficult if you

ask people why cousin marriage seems

wrong health might come up the fear of

birth defects and genetic disorders has

influenced the change in social norms

but in 2002 researchers from the

national society of genetic counselors

found that the increased risk was a

minor one in the general population the

risk that a child will be born with

serious complications is three to four

percent with a first cousin couple the

risk increased by 1.7 to 2.8 percentage

points and with those figures the

researchers concluded that there was no

biological reason to discourage cousins

from marrying look i totally get it

whether you fancy your cousin or not

depending on where you’re from this can

still be a bit of a taboo subject but

the truth is our feelings around it are

shaped by the culture we live in and not

necessarily by whether it’s objectively

dangerous or not after all if it wasn’t

for cousin marriage you probably

wouldn’t be here