Should cousin marriage be banned?

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To tighten bonds of kinship. They have this concept of 'biradari', which means 'brotherhood' and it's really important to maintain ties with your kin. Each biradari has it's own caste and you don't want to marry outside your caste. In an immigrant population, the easiest place to get someone of your own caste is within your own family. It's rare amongst Hindus to do this (cousin marriage is expressly forbidden in some Indian states) though and everyone knows how rigid the Hindi caste system is. So in Pakistan and India itself, it's a a way of saying, 'we're Muslims, we marry our cousins, unlike you Hindus' - asserting identity.

It might sound medieval but it's the culture they've been condition into since they were born. I don't like it but such things are too powerful to change. It would take place illegally if it was banned.

They're not the only ones who do it. They're just the biggest group in this country who practice it on such a scale. Quite a few African communities (usually the Muslim ones, granted) practice cousin-marriage, but not as much. It's also fairly common in the Middle East generally. Cousin marriage is low-risk if it happens occasionally. It's just the routine way that Hasidic Jews and Pakistani Muslims do it is basically unethical without genetic screening.

Some Orthodox Jewish communities keep databases of genetic tests of all their members which can be checked against for potential marriages, while keeping the maximum level of medical privacy. Basically they'll only tell you if both you and the person you're planning to marry share a recessive gene for some disease.

There should be no type of marriage banned. It shouldn't be any of the government's business, why are they involved at all?

I'm not too worried about a plague of people boneing their cousins, it's pretty hardwired in most of us not to do that.

Really? How do you explain cultures where it's the preferred type of reproductive contract?

It's deranged as well as barbaric. If that's how they define themselves as being in the ROP no wonder many wouldn't mind leaving, thanks.

Particularly when this method of reproduction is becoming, erm, alarmingly commonplace in one's own country?

Well hence me saying most of us. I'd imagine most cultures that it's prevalent in are cultures where these marriages are arranged. Arranged marriage is still practiced in India and Pakistan so it's not surprising that they have taken this custom with them.

In the Persian Gulf, you have to get genetically screened before you get married, even if you're not cousins.

The Orthodox Jewish community where I live have a database like that, as well.

Marriage between first cousins has been canonical in most Christian denominations from the earliest times. In Europe, only Spain, Austria and Hungary banned it (ironically, given that the Hapsburg's were remarkably inbred).

Frankly, if we are going to turn our attention to consanguinous marriages, I think we should be spending a lot more time worrying about the large number of half-siblings who are out there, unaware that they are genetically linked through common donors (generally, but not exclusively sperm donors).

Cousin marriages (other than double cousins) represents a much smaller risk than half-sibling marriages.

Not at all.

Inbreeding is a danger. But do note that marriage is neither necessary nor sufficient to reproduce. So banning cousin marriage is not a solution to the inbreeding issue.

As bad a the potential genetic damage caused by inbreeding can be, the fact remains, if we all looked back far enough in our own family trees, we'd probably find cousins marrying cousins.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

there has been a christian bias against it in the western world for quite some time. health is a secular case against it but even health is not stronger then love(unless that love risks injury or death to others) so most people's bias against cousin-cousin love die away in the future. inbreeding happens, and sometimes the torah even finds it noble for the motivations behind it (like when Lott's daughter's thought they were the last of all humanity and decided to reproduce with their father), but is not praised as a whole in the bible because you are limiting yourself off from knowing other groups, other tribes, other people beyond your circle. I mean the bible acknowledges this human norm, like polygamy, but does not endorse it.

Yeah, and historically there was no legal age of consent for a male having sex with a female.

Does that make it alright for Muslims to have sex with children in the modern day 'cos we used to do it?

That way leads to barbarism.

Most first cousin marriages don't have anything to do with love. The cultures that practice them a lot have the idea that love develops after you get married. This isn't a case of love being more important than health but of tradition being a larger consideration than health.

In England cousin marriages were fairly common. The main motive was to keep the wealth within the family.

ruveyn

Im a bit confused here.
Do these Pakistani's practice first cousin marriage in their homeland, or just in the UK?

I had the impression it was just in the UK because they dont want to marry into the local foiriegn culture so they marry cousins because of the paucity of spouses from their own group to go around in their new alien home.