But they really like the bango pick'n
Posted on 03/05/2004 12:25:23 PM PST by ZGuy
Everyone wants to fall in love; it's the stuff of movies, songs and dreams. But what if you fall in love with your cousin?
For one couple, romance bloomed among two cousins who met as adults after a 20 year absence.
"We ran into each other, at a family reunion," Christie Smith told ABCNEWS. "And we just struck it off."
Smith said marrying her cousin Mark brought concerns.
"It was very scary, at first. I thought that it was something that was very wrong," said Smith.
Einstein Kissed His Cuz
Cousins who fall in love have a right to voice concerns. After all, marrying a cousin just isn't done, right?
At least that's what we're taught to believe. Only primitive people who live in isolated places marry cousins, and it's dangerous and leads to creating stupid children.
Or does it? A new study reveals the genetic risks associated with this type of pairing are not as great as once believed.
And consider this — Albert Einstein's parents were cousins, and he married his cousin, too. FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt were cousins, so were Prince Albert and Queen Victoria and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was briefly married to a second cousin.
In America, marrying your cousin is legally allowed in 26 states and every year about 200,000 cousins wed. Worldwide, it's much more common — 20 percent of all married couples are cousins. In some Middle Eastern countries, almost half of all marriages are to cousins.
Those Who Say ‘I Do’
But in America, cousins who find love also find public resistance.
"The overbearing concept is that, you know, 'cousins can't get married,' " said Brian Wagner, who has been married to his cousin Caren for 12 years. His dad and his wife's mom are brother and sister.
"Some people see it as 'inbreeding,' or, you know, 'incest,' or something terrible like that," said Wagner.
Caren said she didn't plan on their shared future, although her mom noticed they always liked each other.
"They played together, they fought over toys together. And they just had a happy good relationship as kids will," said Pat Bradfield. "They were real kissin' cousins."
They initially grew up in the same area, but Brian's family then moved away. Years later when Caren decided to visit, their lives changed.
"When she showed up at the airport terminal and come off the plane, it's just like everything came rushing back again," said Brian.
"It developed beyond a 'friendship,' into a 'OK, do you want to get married this weekend or next?' " said Caren.
Her mom says the idea "floored" her a bit, but since she couldn't stop the marriage she was leery of voicing opposition in fear of losing contact with her daughter. Instead, she offered some advice.
"In a marriage such as you're contemplating, you have to remember that you could divorce your husband but you can't divorce the whole family," said Pat.
They did lose one friend who, Caren said, they just didn't hear from anymore after they announced their union.
Legality of the Marriage
Twenty-four states still forbid cousin marriages. The United States is the only country in the world where these laws still exist. "A lot of these laws have been on the books forever and they have just not gotten changed," said Brian.
The laws date back hundreds of years to the time when the Catholic Church campaigned against cousin marriages because in the Bible Leviticus says, "none of you shall approach to any that is near of kin."
Regardless, Caren and Brian had a church wedding in Virginia, one of 26 states where cousin marriage is legal. "We talked to our minister … and he knew and he didn't have an issue with marrying us," said Brian.
Biological Implications
One of the reasons cousin marriage is taboo, is the assumption they will have kids with birth defects.
But a new groundbreaking study funded by the National Society of Genetic Counselors revealed that some beliefs about cousin marriage are unfounded.
Robin Bennett, who headed the study, told ABCNEWS the risks of having a child with a cousin are about "2 to 3 percent" above the average population's risk for having a child with birth defects or mental retardation.
She says while there are risks, they're "not as bad" as people perceive. Other risk factors are higher. For example, there's a 10 percent chance that a 41-year-old woman will give birth to kids with chromosomal defects.
If one parent has a genetic disease, like Huntington's, they have a 50 percent chance of passing it on. Bennett gives parents the risks but would not tell them not to have kids. She advocates that cousins who are romantically involved have genetic counseling before they're pregnant.
Brian and Caren went for counseling, and were told the risk for birth defects was low, but their kids might have asthma which runs in the family.
They now have two boys, ages 12 and 8, and both have asthma. But they don't think twice about their parents being cousins. They're also at the top of their classes in school.
The rest of the family has come around and say they couldn't be happier with how things have worked out. Ultimately, Caren and Brian say it may have been their family connection that led them to fall in love.
"We could communicate," said Brian. "We had the same values, as far as raising children … It's a match."
That's not really very good odds. I wouldn't have elective surgery if the risk of dying was 2-3%. And considering that children are often aborted when amniocentesis reveals birth defects or retardation, this 2-3% could have tragic results.
There's a big difference between marrying first cousins and marrying a fourth or fifth cousin (which Franklin and Eleanor were). My great-aunt married her fifth cousin (we never would have known except they were both descended from the same Revolutionary War soldier). They never had any children (I don't know why, ladies didn't discuss such things in front of the children in those days) but I doubt it had anything to do with their single shared ancestor five generations back.
The point this article misses is that ONE first-cousin marriage in a bloodline is not particularly dangerous. It's when they start adding up in the family tree that inherited defects start to concentrate. What are sometimes called "double cousins" or even "quadruple cousins" are descended from multiple first-cousin marriages.
I'm familiar with this problem because I used to breed and show Siamese cats. Every ten or twenty years a REALLY hot male cat (quad or quint grand champion) will come along, and everybody wants to breed to a winner so everybody does. If you don't watch your pedigrees you can accidentally breed double or triple cousins to each other and wind up with horrendous birth defects and/or dead kittens.
That's why the first-cousin marriages in small isolated populations cause such problems. It's not just THAT marriage, but all the other ones back up the line. An isolated first-cousin marriage will have three sets of grandparents, but if there are others back up the line, those three sets may share way too many common ancestors. In other words, as Jeff Foxworthy said, "Your family tree don't fork."
But they really like the bango pick'n
So you believe that any marriage with an increased chance of chromosomal defect for offspring should not be allowed? We should also forbid pregnancy after the woman is 35 years old.
Point is, once cousin marriages are allowed and practiced for some time, there WILL be double and triple cousins trying to marry. It will be almost impossible to determine the cousin marriages as they recede into the past (well, for everybody except genealogy-mad Southerners who can recite their pedigree for eight or ten generations. ahem. )
Probably not as big a problem now as it was in the past with restricted mobility, but there's potential for some difficulty here.
Not a particularly ringing endorsement.
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