It’s illegal in many states and a social taboo in all.

Anonymous wrote:My high school friend is married to her first cousin, just found out that her son is engaged to her niece. She is a physician and had genetic counseling but it seems so odd and also it’s illegal in their state. It’s an arranged/love marriage and girl lives in India so they’ll probably marry there and it won’t be void in their state but I can’t wrap my head around it.

They are trying to keep their son into their religion, culture and family. They are giving their sibling’s family gift of immigration. They are assuming their niece will be good to them in their old age, compared to any another girl. It’s a control tactic but in their minds they must think they are doing what’s best for their son.

I have older Indian relatives who did this, but no one has considered it for at least a generation. No genetic issues with anyone but no one I know does this anymore. They would likely think of them as we do here, as being a bit backwards.

Albert Einstein and his second wife (and first cousin), Elsa Einstein, took family marriage to a new level. They were related through both maternal and paternal lineages: Their mothers were sisters and their fathers were first cousins.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1st cousins marry in other countries. is what it is.

Like Alabama or Mississippi?

Stop being an oikophobe. Cousin marriages are well under 1% of marriages everywhere in the US, outside of certain communities of recent immigrants. First or second cousin marriage is above 60% in Pakistan.

There are serious consequences, both individual - a much increased rate of all sorts of genetic diseases - and societal. Nepotism and tribalism are very much tied to the tight family interlocks that arise from cousin marriages.

Anonymous wrote:This is interesting.

“Genetics of first-cousin marriage families show how some are protected from heart disease”



https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170412132402.htm

These are called Human Knockouts, they don’t get heart diseases so gene study may help others as well.

These things are wired, one study I recently read says that consanguineous marriage between cousins from the paternal side increases the risk of diabetes by 20% and from the maternal side by 50%.