Love: Should cousins marry?

There is about the same chance that two first cousins will produce a child with genetic defects as there is for any woman over 40 (with an unrelated husband): http://www.infoniac.com/science/two-first-cousin-marriage.html Many famous people (and, of course, many people who are not so famous) have married their first cousins with no ill-effect to the progeny. Johann Sebastian Bach married his first cousin (some references say she was his second cousin) and had 7 children by her; Charles Darwin also married his first cousin and had 10 children. There is a long list here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coupled_cousins Of course, the likelihood of there being genetic defects reduces slightly the more distantly related the two people are, but the chance is NEVER zero! The laws which prevent cousin marriages in the United States were based on the results of a number of very suspect and highly biased research projects and publications.

Definitely a bad idea. It will only produce a high proportion of physical and mentally damaged offspring. I have seen this in Pakistan where cousin marriages are still very common. Now, in Greece where the population is tiny, the same effect is observed. There are a lot of retarded people locked away in the houses out of site!

Hi, Angelo! Your discussion proved to be more complex that I thought. I was ready to give my answer right away but reading the previous posts made me to hesitate. It seems that the topic isn't so simple. I'd be glad to make a research - if I find a time - and then I'll be able to give my answer. But this is one of those discussions that are very useful because they make you learn something new.

In my opinion you should marry who you want to marry, even if is your cousin. But in some society like in our country it is considered a taboo, so cousins who are lovers don't have any to be together legally. In regards to genetic abnormalities , if you marry someone related to you by blood you will have less than 10% of this happening, its not that high but you still be gambling the odds.

Of course it's a bad idea as their children will have more risk of growth defect. So please do this if people take care of their kids.