this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2024

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Tennessee legislature passes bill banning marriage between first cousins (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

29 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Proposal sails through, with one vocal opponent saying gay first cousins do not risk having a child with birth defects

Archived version: https://archive.ph/Ri2sc

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[–] pennomi 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I tend to agree. There’s only minor biological issues with marrying a cousin, around a 3% increase in birth defects if my quick google is correct. It’s only a cascading problem like people expect when it happens over and over in the same family tree… (or should I say family stick?)

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Interesting.

Direct family incestuous offspring seems to have a 50% chance of having genetics disorders.

The stuff for first cousins is even more interesting!

In April 2002, the Journal of Genetic Counseling released a report which estimated the average risk of birth defects in a child born of first cousins at 1.1–2.0 percentage points above the average base risk for non-cousin couples of 3%, or about the same as that of any woman over age 40.[218] In terms of mortality, a 1994 study found a mean excess pre-reproductive mortality rate of 4.4%,[219] while another study published in 2009 suggests the rate may be closer to 3.5%.[2] Put differently, a single first-cousin marriage entails a similar increased risk of birth defects and mortality as a woman faces when she gives birth at age 41 rather than at 30.[220]

The above is from Wikipedia.

So basically, banning incestuous childbirth for first cousins is equivalent to banning women from having children when above 41 years old.

[–] Serinus 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What if the cousins are over 40?

[–] irreticent 2 points 7 months ago

They'll probably need some Viagra.

[–] The_v 4 points 7 months ago

It's a multigenerational issue with first cousin marriage. The coefficient of inbreeding increases as generations with repeated first cousin marriage.

Cultures where first cousin marriage is allowed have double the number of babies born with birth defects. They also are thought to have a higher rate of miscarriage.

Some insular small religious groups have an inbreeding coefficient so high that every marriage in the group is the equivalent to that of siblings. A small