Do you feel the bans on marrying family members should be lifted?

Sounds like nonsense that someone would only want to marry their 1st or 2nd or even 3rd cousin….are there not enough people to choose from in these towns? But that is my opinion, and the government has one too.

I think the government basis it’s stance upon the after effect of same family marriages….. inbreeding! Have you seen what this has done to a population of people in an area where inbreeding is prevelant? In other countries, inbreeding has resulted in physical and health defects, including:

Reduced fertility both in litter size and sperm viability Increased genetic disorders (including cleft palates and MS) Fluctuating facial asymmetry Lower birth rate Higher infant mortality Slower growth rate Smaller adult size Loss of immune system function

I think the ban on marrying family members has been put in place for a very good reason, aside from the obvious social factors.

To make any further changes would just cost taxpayers more money in the process. If their state doesn’t offer it, then my advice to them would be to take a vacation and plan the Destination Wedding you and your cousin have always dreamed of in a state where it is legal.

I dont think there should be a ban but there should be a clause stating that if they procreate knowingly, a life which is deformed due to same dna/genetics,they would be penalised.

I agree that love is love. Get married to whoever you want, I don’t care if it’s your sister or your mum or your brother. BUT. I don’t think they should be allowed to have children together, because they could end up deformed and such. So really, it’s easier just to keep the ban.

I think that would cause a lot of problems.

There have been studies on attraction done, I thought it was pretty interesting. It’ll be quite a rant though. Because of our genetics, each person fights off different bacteria differently, which means that each person has different amounts of different bacteria living on them. These bacteria are what give a unique smell to each person when they sweat, or just in general. Siblings, on the other hand, have similar DNA, and therefore, similar bacteria on them, and similar scents. In the study, they put men in white shirts and had them run on a treadmill, to get their scent on the shirts. They then put these into tubes to preserve the scents, and chose a number of women to smell and rate them. Some scents are considered attractive, while others aren’t. As a side note, women that were ovulating found the odors more attractive than the others. Anyway, they added a little kick to the study the second time around. They had men with sisters in the study contribute their shirts. Each of these women, without knowing that the person was related, automatically found the smell of it repulsive. Dude. Mother Nature’s trying to tell you something, here. Also, next to that, genes are meant to be mixed around. Close relatives have similar genes, meaning that any disease prevalent at any point in the lineage has a much greater chance of popping up in the kid. It doubles chances. So sure, marry who you like. It’s unlikely for most people to be attracted to their relatives, but if it happens, I just wouldn’t advise having sex, at the risk of ending up with a kid with a terrible quality of life. I like ranting ^_^

If it’s your brother or sister that’s weird. But i could understand if it’s your step cousin or a cousin by marriage or something. But if it’s just straight blood related I’m not down with it.

Depends. I wouldn’t have a problem with people marrying whoever they love, and whatnot. Sure, that’s cool. But no kids if you’re close relatives, that would have to stay illegal or something.

Great answer, like the dose of humor in it too :)

Oh hey. I didn’t expect anyone to actually read all of that.

here lies the daughter, here lies the father, here lies the sister, here lies the brother, here lie husband and wife, and yet there are only two bodies in the grave…. (a french poem from teh 16th century)

where i am UK 1st cousins are allowed to marry as theres no risk of passing on defective genes to their children. but the risk is greater with closer relatives like mother and son, father and daughter and brotehr and sister.. those type are illegal and should stay that way but 1st cousins are fine, i have no problem with it.

Yeah! There was this really sad story about twins who got seperated but they met up and didn’t know that they were twins and they fell in love. They were gonan get married but found out that they were related :[ awwr. There shoudn’t be a ban, it’s true, you can’t help who you fall for :]

Cousin marriage really isn’t that controversial. It is legal in most of the US and everywhere else in the world. In the US states recognize cousin marriages from other states regardless of their own laws.

There is only a slight increase in birth defects in 1st cousin marriages.

J. S. Bach, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, FDR, and H. G. Wells all married their 1st cousins.

In some cultures up to 80% of marriages are 1st cousins due to tradition or to keep wealth in the family.

It is theorized that historically the majority of marriages were between 1st cousins.

There is no limit to love… period. If you love the same sex, the other sex, a dog, a cat, a tree, then you have every right to love them and marry them. If you are attracted to your relative and want to be with them, then I see nothing wrong with that. The thing is with the childeren. Like the other comments say, the kids could possibly be deformed mentally or physically. So in my opinion, relatives who love each other should not have kids.

Im in favor of keeping the ban.

unless your the last people left on earth and you have to repopulate, there is no reason you should be entertaining the thought of marrying family members. period.

Its wrong, knowing your babies will be deformed is wrong. Anyone who would lift the ban is crazyyyyy.

no thats gross and your child will have a birth defect or be special ed cuz its the same genes and dna

As you know, I have no family. Voldemort killed my parents.

Here’s the thing. We dont ban anyone else because an increased risk of genetic deformities. Where exactly are we going to start drawing lines here. Today we have genetic testing. We dont go around banning people if they have a higher risk of passing on something. Also, older women have seriously high risks of having kids with mental defects. We dont ban them from having kids or even IVF. So I dont consider that a valid argument. Cousin marriages arent exactly controversial in a legal sense. When it comes to marriages between siblings or parents it’s another issue because inc.est is so very often a sign of abuse or a dysfunctional household with serious issues.

Uhhhh no no and no, I dont mean to sound closed minded but seriously with close to 7 billion people on the planet anyone who is entertaining the thought needs to get out more and maybe see a shrink.

Give it a rest. You are not actually Harry Potter…

Ahhh, you’re 19 hours too late.

As you know, I have no family. Voldemort killed my parents. - haha funny dude funny as

Funadvice deleted all of my other answers to questions. FIlthy half-breeds.

ay ay? Have you not seen that show advertised about first cousin marraiges and their children, they all have birth defects?

You have every right to marry a dog or cat? I am sorry but, I just absolutely disagree with what you said. You are all the time talking about how you are a christiant, well in the Bible does it not say that a man should not be with animal? Bestiality!? That is just gross and I would never agree with someone doing that. But as far as the family with family, I don’t think it is right. They are family, they are supposed to love each other. But not in an intimate way…I think the laws should stay the same…so that we don’t have an increase in deformed, and mentally retarded children…it’s not right that a poor innocent child has to be deformed or mentally retarded, and made fun of all it’s life just because the parents couldn’t find a decent partner outside of their family…I do not hate people that do decide to be with their own family, and I would not be mean to them, ignore them, or really treat them any different because of it. I would just not agree with it.