Where you can marry your cousin in US and shocking number impacted by inbreeding… as UK mulls cousin ban

Incest is about to be outlawed in Britain, with a new bill in Parliament that aims to ban marriages between cousins ​​due to the varying risks of birth defects.

But the US does not have a federal blanket ban on the books. Instead, the legality of first cousin marriage is determined by individual states – and nineteen states still allow it.

Older statistics show that about 250,000 Americans are married to their cousins, and some experts say that number is rising.

Yet studies show that children born to two consanguineous parents are at double the risk of congenital problems such as heart and lung defects, cleft palates and extra fingers.

Children with this type of inbreeding are also twice as likely to be treated for a disease that requires antipsychotic medications, such as schizophrenia.

Cross-cousin marriage is legal in Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island.

In states where such marriages are not allowed, the punishment may vary. In Texas, Nevada and Arizona, partners can be charged with misdemeanor assault. In Georgia and Tennessee it is a misdemeanor.

This means that people who had a sexual relationship with their cousin could face fines, prison sentences, or both.

In addition to the 19 states where it is legal without significant restrictions, Arizona, Utah and Wisconsin allow it under certain circumstances.

Since each state treats cousin marriage differently, it’s difficult to know how many people have been jailed or fined for this. But cases often go unreported, meaning any estimate is an undercount.

Ten states allow it with specific conditions or exceptions: Utah, Wisconsin, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington.

In Maine, for example, cousins ​​can marry after receiving genetic counseling, which covers topics such as recent statistics on the rate of birth defects compared to cousins ​​and non-cousins.

Arizona does not allow first cousin marriages unless both parties are over 65 or if one of them is unable to have children.

Although cousin marriages are illegal in Utah, they can be allowed if both people are over 65 or if one party is unable to have children. Similarly, in Wisconsin, cousin marriage is prohibited. Still, it may be allowed if a person cannot have children or if both people are over 55 years old.

Kentucky was the first state to ban cousin marriage in 1850 and the most recent state to ban cousin marriage was Texas in 2005.

In Tennessee, the Legislature is currently considering a bill that would do just this, with the state House overwhelmingly approving the measure.

Children born from incest are at least 25 percent more likely to be born with a serious genetic condition passed down from their parents, including cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia.

They are also at greater risk for developmental disabilities, vision or hearing problems, and heart defects.

Whether the practice of marrying cousins ​​should be illegal in the US is fraught. Some argue that a ban amounts to government overreach, while others argue the risk of birth defects, the impact on family roles, issues of consent and the public distaste that bans laws. it would be an easy decision.

Two American scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were in the first camp and said that is what laws are prohibit marriage between cousins relying on government control to serve a public health purpose, which aligns with the concept of eugenics even by limited definitions.

Marriages between parents and children, brothers and sisters, aunts and cousins, and uncles and nieces are prohibited in every state.

It’s not entirely clear how many Americans are affected by incestuous relationships, but a review of hundreds of studies by a sexual health company earlier this year estimated that this affected 15 percent of American families.

That figure was completely at odds with previous estimates that only 2 percent of Americans had had sexual contact with a family member.

The previous study was not peer-reviewed, but Dr. David Lawson, a Texas psychologist who specializes in sexual abuse, previously told DailyMail.com that the statistics that exist on the subject are “probably conservative” as there is rarely reported.

Cases of incest and inbreeding typically go unreported, either because of the shame faced by two consenting adults or because one partner is abused and cannot speak.

Incest goes against the biological purpose of mating: to advance the species by shuffling DNA.

Tight DNA coils form the 23 pairs of chromosomes. Within segments of that DNA are hundreds of thousands of genes that determine what a person looks like.

A gene is dominant or recessive. The offspring will generally receive the dominant gene from the two parents, such as brown eyes over blue eyes.

When both parents carry the recessive gene for blue eyes, their child will most likely have blue eyes.

And since both parents in an incestuous relationship share DNA, the chance that they both share that recessive gene and pass it on to their child is more than 25 percent.

This is also important for genes that have nothing to do with appearance, such as determining whether a child is more susceptible to a disease.

Cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia and many other conditions are often determined by the expression of recessive genes in both parents.

A report in the Journal of Medical Genetics said: ‘A 4 to 5 percent increase in infant mortality has been found in the offspring of first cousin marriages, and similar results have been reported in other species

Inbreeding often affects a child’s IQ and development.

A group of Iranian researchers tested 100 people with intellectual disabilities for a study published in 2019, which found that 61 of the patients had genetic changes that could cause the disability. Of these, 44 were caused by two copies of a recessive gene.

Children of secondary associations had a 4.25 times higher chance being born with an intellectual disability.

Parents who share DNA are also more likely to experience the death of their baby in utero or in infancy, or to have a baby with vision and hearing problems, epilepsy and heart defects.

The US became fascinated with a small family in Odd, West Virginia, who emerged from obscurity following the release of a 2004 documentary with exclusive DailyMail.com reporting that revealed the extent to which years of inbreeding had affected several generations.

One family member, Ray, could only communicate through barking and growling; others were mentally retarded and suffered from other physical ailments. Many members of the family suffered heart attacks, while two did not survive childhood.

Siblings Ray, Betty, Larry and Lorene, and her son Timmy, live in a dilapidated homestead in West Virginia. A set of identical twin brothers led to the family’s history of incest, with Henry and John Whittaker’s children marrying and having their first child in 1937.