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