from cousins to lovers.. and you're the judge

How nice that I read this discussion and be able to respond not because I have a related story rather I want to point something out about the topic in a legal point of view. I have checked on your profile that you are in the Philippines and it would be easier for me to point since we are using the same law. No so much ado...Being a second degree cousins is not actually an impediment for a bf-gf couple to take each other as husband and wife. They would still have a valid marriage and would not fall on "incestuous" marriages. What the Family law prohibits is the marriage between two people who have a blood and by-law relationship within the fourth civil degree....Fourth Civil degree means marrying your "first degree cousin" by consanguinity (relative by blood) or affinity (relative by law).... To illustrate for a clearer understanding.... H and W are husbands and wife. They have a son S and a daughter D. H have a living father GF and a brother HB, who in turn married to X. HB and X have a son Y. D and Y are prohibited by law to marry each other because they fall under the fourth civil degree which is the limit. The counting is like this taking D as the example. D cannot marry S her brother because obviously he is a direct relative by blood (First civil degree). D cannot marry her father H because he is a direct blood relative (1st civil degree). D cannot marry her grandfather GF (2nd civil degree. D cannot marry her uncle HB (3rd civil degree) and D cannot marry Y, who falls under the fourth civil degree.... Same law is applicable to relatives by affinity. Meaning, D cannot marry within the fourth civil degree from the side of X, her auntie's side. In short, if there are no other impediments like the age other than the blood relationship as stated in your discussion, I would say the marriage was valid. I hope you understood the illustration and the explanation. Happy mylotting!!!

This happens more often than not. European royals marry their cousins to keep the kingdom within the family. Cheers!!

I'm not for marrying your relatives... But these things happen. There was a case over in europe where a man and women got married, and it was eventually revealed, that they were actually twin brother and sister and had been adopted out seperately. That's a tough situation to be in, because you allow yourself to develop feelings for a person, and all a sudden in an instant, those feelings are "wrong." Who are we to judge?

The same with my friends story of love. They got in love with each other even though they know clearly they are first cousins. Nobody's stop their love to each other even their parents and nearest relatives. They got away to live their own lives. And until now they were together still. They have 8 children and they are already grandparents. But before to live peacefully they need to passed into traumatic experiences but they stand still with their great love to each other. They don't mind if they are cousins. With lots of graces from the great Provider, still live happily until now at the age of 60 and above.

This really happens in any parts of the world, even Mickey Arroyo, the son of President Gloria Macapal Arroyo of the Philippines married his second cousin Angela Montenegro. This is also the common practice among European royalty prior to the 20th century. But I don't think I can take this kind of set-up, this is simply inconceivable and I don't think I will ever fall in love with a relative, I am very close to my cousins and we treated as brothers and sisters.

I am not partial to relatives getting into romantic relationships. And on that statement, yes I am a Filipino and I am part-hypocritical about this topic. It's just that being married to your cousin--no matter what damned reason it is--is perceived my modern-day society as WRONG. I must agree. But I've [not-so-sure] been there before... I think. It's still wrong. Just. Plain. Wrong.

That was a pathetic story. It feel sad about it. I have always wondered why societal "norms" are so rigid and unyielding to certain natural occurencies. If it is true that God created only Adam and Eve as the initial humans, and all of us humans have come to life through them, how could it have been possible without brothers marrying or mating with sisters? If God had forbidden mating between siblings and close relations, would He not have created a parallel family to Adam's? Alternatively, I have a feeling that there is always a natural repulsion to amorous love between close relations. Therefore, if an amorous love affair occurs between "close" relations, one should probe into the legitimacy of one of the partners. In the real sense of it, only God knows the true father of a child - the mother herself may not even know, especially if there is a case of infidelity prior to the conception of the child. In such a situation, some so-called close relations might not be very close afterall, and the natural law of repulsion might refuse to operate between them. The two major religions forbid incest. Indeed, the Qur'an of the Muslims specifies what constitutes incest. The puzzle now is why the God of Adam permitted "incest" while God of Jesus or Muhammed forbids it. To my mind, incest is mostly a societal issue. What constitutes incest varies from one society to another. However, for as long as the society frowns at something, it is incumbent on its people to follow the norms. Unfortunately, nature knows no norms in some cases, either because such norms are unnatural or because an "unnatural nature" is involved.

I think there's nothing wrong with that. It's not incest for sure and some people said it's not so good to marry your family coz the child produced would have some genetic problems but I don't actually believe it too much.

Scientifically speaking they can.But thru religion and chisms it could never be..

Marrying your cousins is very common in many cultures. It tightly knits family and strengthens the bonds between families. Very touching story though i thoroughly enjoyed it.