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NHS defends cousin marriages because ‘only 15 percent lead to birth defects’ (www.yahoo.com)

submitted 2 days ago by bytesonbike@discuss.online to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

124 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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”.

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[–] nyankas@lemmy.world 93 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I wonder where this 15% figure comes from. All the research I can find estimates the probability for these disorders at around 2-4% for first degree cousins. This is about the same as becoming a mother at 40 with a non-related man.

The article only talks about some NHS training documents and is very opinionated in style. Smells like a snappy headline about a controversial topic was more important than proper research.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Yep, this is rage-bait or some sexual kink thing surfacing as a news story because the authors know it will get shared to hell and back. While I have absolutely no doubt that there are plenty of right-wingers with weird sexual hangups that they're trying to make everyone's problem, cousin-marriages are pretty low on the list of things we need to worry about. As long as everyone is adult and consenting I literally do not care what people do with their peepees.

[–] qualia@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Plus in the absence of any power dynamic* why shouldn't absolutely anyone be allowed to choose to be in a relationship with literally anyone else? Especially as people are increasingly choosing to not reproduce.

* If this is even possible

[–] PanGodofPanic@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 1 day ago

Usually the argument goes into the ethics of bearing children in a way that, knowingly, creates a significantly and markedly higher risk for every kind of disorder reducing the child's QOL. I don't usually find this argument anywhere near airtight, since there's a plethora of other ways to do that that aren't banned AND this veers into eugenics territory. But that's the argument I've seen, at least.