Incest is about to be outlawed in the UK, with a new bill in Parliament aimed at banning marriage between cousins due to various risks of birth defects.
But the United States has no blanket federal ban. Instead, the legality of marriage between first cousins is decided by individual states, and 19 still allow it.
Figures suggest that around 250,000 Americans are married to their first or second cousins, according to older statistics, and some experts say the number is rising.
However, studies show that children born to two consanguineous parents have twice the risk of congenital problems such as heart and lung defects, cleft palate, and extra fingers.
Children with this type of inbreeding are also twice as likely to be treated for an illness that requires antipsychotic medications, such as schizophrenia.
Marriage between first cousins 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 these types of marriages are not allowed, the punishment may vary. In Texas, Nevada and Arizona, couples could face felony charges. In Georgia and Tennessee, it is a misdemeanor.
This means that people who have had a sexual relationship with their first cousin could face fines, imprisonment, or both.
Some states allow marriages between first cousins with some exceptions. In Arizona, Utah and Wisconsin, marked with red stripes, the practice is legal only when the couple is 55 or 65 and can prove they cannot have a baby.
In addition to the 19 states where it is legal without major restrictions, Arizona, Utah, and Wisconsin allow it in certain circumstances.
Since each state treats cousin marriage differently, it is difficult to know how many people have been jailed or fined for it. But cases are often underreported, 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-cousin marriages.
In Arizona, marriages between first cousins are not allowed, except if both parties are over 65 years old or if one of them cannot have children.
In Utah, while marriages between first cousins are illegal, they may be allowed if both people are over 65 or if one of the parties cannot have children. Similarly, in Wisconsin, marriage between first cousins is prohibited. Still, it may be allowed if one is unable to have children or in cases where both individuals are over 55 years of age.
Kentucky was the first 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 so as well, and the state House overwhelmingly approved the measure.
Children born of incest are at least 25 percent more likely to be born with a serious genetic disorder passed from parent to child, which could include cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia.
They are also at increased risk for developmental disabilities, vision or hearing problems, and heart defects.
It is complicated to determine whether the practice of cousin marriage should be illegal in the US: some argue that a ban constitutes government overreach, while others argue that the risk of birth defects, the impact on family roles, Issues of consent and public disgust make laws banning it would be an easy decision.
Two American academics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology leaned toward the first camp and said that the laws that ban marriage between cousins Relying on government control to achieve a public health goal, which aligns with the concept of eugenics, even through narrow definitions.
In Laita’s video it seemed that the family did not know that her genetic problems were due to inbreeding. They also couldn’t remember much about their parents or other family members.
Marriages between parents and children, siblings, aunts and nephews, and uncles and nieces are prohibited in all states.
It’s not entirely clear how many Americans have been affected by incestuous relationships, but a review of hundreds of studies by a sexual health company earlier this year estimated it was about 15 percent of American families.
That figure was completely out of sync with earlier estimates that just 2 percent of Americans had experienced sexual contact with a family member.
The above study was not peer-reviewed, but Dr David Lawson, a Texas-based psychologist who specializes in sexual abuse, previously told DailyMail.com that any statistics that exist on the topic are “probably conservative” given that they rarely time it is reported.
Incest and endogamy cases typically go unreported, either because of the shame two consenting adults would face or because one partner is being abused and unable to speak.
Incest goes against the biological goal of mating: to advance the species by mixing DNA.
The tight coils of DNA form the 23 pairs of chromosomes. Within segments of that DNA are hundreds of thousands of genes that determine a person’s appearance.
A gene is dominant or recessive. The offspring will usually get the dominant gene from both 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 incestual relationship share DNA, the chances of both sharing that recessive gene and passing it on to their child exceed 25 percent.
This is also important for genes unrelated to appearance, such as determining whether a child will be more susceptible to a disease.
Cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, and many other disorders are often determined by the expression of recessive genes in both parents.
A report in the Journal of Medical Genetics saying: ‘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 evaluated 100 people with intellectual disabilities for a study published in 2019, which found that, in 61 of the patients, there were genetic changes that could cause the disability. Of those, 44 were caused by two copies of a recessive gene.
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The children of first cousin unions had a 4.25 times greater probability of 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.
America became fascinated with a small family living in Odd, West Virginia, who emerged from obscurity after the release of a 2004 documentary that featured exclusive reporting from DailyMail.com revealing the extent to which years of inbreeding had affected several generations. .
One family member, Ray, could only communicate by barking and growling; others were intellectually disabled and suffered from other physical conditions. Many family members suffered a heart attack, while two did not survive childhood.
Siblings Ray, Betty, Larry and Lorene, and their son Timmy, live on a dilapidated farm in West Virginia. A pair of identical twin brothers sparked the family’s history of incest, and sons Henry and John Whittaker married and had their first child in 1937.