Ban On Cousin Marriage 'Ill Advised'

Marriage And Beyond

oi-Staff

By Staff

Monday, March 16, 2009, 11:19

While it was once famously opposed, cousin is reported to be safe according to a population genetic expert. The outlook to the issue is the outdated assumption about high degree genetic risk to offspring.

The law banning between cousins was 'ill-advised', according to Professor Hamish Spencer and Professor Diane Paul, a Research Associate at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Under the 31 state laws in US, the cousin s are completely banned or permitted only after the couple obtain genetic counselling or is beyond reproductive age or if one partner is sterile.

"Neither the scientific nor social assumptions behind such legislation stand up to close scrutiny," said Professor Spencer. Spencer believes that risk of birth defects in offspring of cousins was much lower than anticipated. He used the 2002 expert review of studies to support his thesis.

"Women over the age of 40 have a similar risk of having children with birth defects and no one is suggesting they should be prevented from reproducing," said Spencer. “People with Huntington's Disease or other autosomal dominant disorders have a 50 per cent risk of transmitting the underlying genes to offspring and they are not barred either," he added.

Spencer declared that the legislation reflects outmoded prejudices about immigrants and the rural poor and relies on oversimplified views of heredity. There is no scientific grounding for it. Professor Spencer's views and study are a part of his open-access journal PloS. AGENCIES