NHS defends cousin marriages because ‘only 15pc lead to birth defects’
www.yahoo.com
The NHS has defended cousin marriage because most do not lead to birth defects, it has emerged.

Midwives have been told about the benefits of “close relative marriage” in training documents that minimise the risks to couples’ children.

The documents claim “85 to 90 per cent of cousin couples do not have affected children” and warn staff that “close relative marriage is often stigmatised in England”, adding claims that “the associated genetic risks have been exaggerated”.

  • KristellAEnglish
    1413·
    22 hours ago

    This. I haven’t seen an argument about incest that doesn’t immediately devolve into eugenics, or talking about power imbalances that aren’t present with adult cousins

    • Atlas_@lemmy.worldEnglish
      41·
      17 hours ago

      Children of first-cousin marriages have a 4–6% risk of autosomal recessive genetic disorders compared to the 3% of the children of totally unrelated parents.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage

      Is it eugenics now to say people should avoid conceiving children that are likely to have birth defects?

      • KristellAEnglish
        52·
        16 hours ago

        I don’t know, but do you also think it should be illegal to have a child if you’re over 40?

        Do you also think that it should be illegal for people with heritable disabilities to have children?

        Because your argument isn’t anti-cousin-marriage, it’s anti-birth-defects, and there are a whole lot more sources of them than incest, and ones that are way more common.

        Also, yes, preventing people from having children who would have birth defects dates back to the original eugenics movement, it is literally a core belief of the eugenics movement.

        • Atlas_@lemmy.worldEnglish
          22·
          16 hours ago

          24 US states ban cousin marriages. No states ban people over 40 from having children. You want to equate the two but there is a line between that that you can draw, as evidenced by half of the USA doing so.

          I’ve expanded on my views elsewhere in thread.

          • KristellAEnglish
            22·
            14 hours ago

            25 US stated by my count, but also I let my ethics develop separately from the law. There’s been a lot of very questionable things in the law in the past, and as such it’s not exactly a trustable guide for ethics imo.

            That’s not the point you presented here, though. The point you presented here was birth defects.

            The point you brought up there I still object to, though. While there can be power dynamics between cousins, it’s fairly rare for those to continue into adulthood, and I have long taken the stance “I don’t believe the state should have a say in what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own home.”

            The line that’s been drawn is people allowing their disgust to inform policy at best. If it were based in anything else the policies would be different.

            • Atlas_@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              14 hours ago

              “I don’t believe the state should have a say in what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own home.”

              So that’s why it’s a marriage ban?

              • KristellAEnglish
                32·
                13 hours ago

                Why did you bring birth defects up if marriage is the concern? You don’t get birth defects from a wedding.

                Also in basically every state where it’s illegal to marry your cousin it’s illegal to have sex with them, too.

                (When I say basically I mean I’m too tired to check half of the US’s laws on this, and the source I’m using says sexual contact is generally not permitted)

      • KristellAEnglish
        76·
        20 hours ago

        Solid observational skills! They have, however, failed you. Just because someone is pointing out that certain arguments don’t actually hold water doesn’t mean they engage in the activities the arguments are against.

        I just don’t care if two cousins wanna fuck because the arguments against it are things that I’m actively opposed to, or don’t apply to the situation.

        • circuscritic@lemmy.caEnglish
          43·
          19 hours ago

          You’re not as persuasive as you think you are…and you’re not fooling anyone.

          • KristellAEnglish
            34·
            18 hours ago

            What, persuasive about not wanting to fuck my cousin? I don’t particularly care if anyone thinks I do. If I did, I wouldn’t be in a thread about fucking your cousin saying I think it’s fine to fuck your cousin. I know that people will make assumptions about my sex life based on my position alone.

            If you mean about the arguments against it being eugenics, I care more about that point, because they are, and eugenics is bad.

            • circuscritic@lemmy.caEnglish
              43·
              18 hours ago

              …jfc dude

              Fun fact: Most of the places it’s legal in are blue. Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina are the only red states it’s legal in, out of 17 total states. If we include states where it’s conditionally legal (usually based on age/fertility) it’s Utah out of 7 states.

              Source

              • KristellAEnglish
                24·
                7 hours ago

                I… Don’t even actually see the point here? I have access to the internet, and know how to use a search engine? You can literally look that up on Wikipedia, are you trying to imply that because I looked at a Wikipedia article for this post that I want to fuck my cousin?

                What a strange outlook on obtaining knowledge. If just knowing what states it’s legal in, something that takes about 30 seconds to find, makes you a cousin-fucker, wouldn’t that make you one too? Or is it just the first person in the thread doing it?