The sheikh ruled: Sometimes it's alright to have an abortion

haaretz.com ^ | March 27, 2005 | Ruth Sinai

[underlying]

There was nothing about the appearance of the young woman who stood up to speak at Rahat's new community center that hinted at the heretical statement she was about to make.

"I'm five months pregnant, with a daughter, and already they're trying to fix her up with husbands," she said. "But I won't have my daughter marry a cousin."

Like most of the 150 women and teenage girls in the hall, the speaker's head was covered with a cloth and she wore a long dress. But her statement reflected a new state of mind that has been infiltrating Bedouin society in the Negev during the last few years. Hers was not the only unusual utterance during the gathering, which was called to raise awareness of the risk of genetic defects in intra-family marriages. The conference was initiated by Yedid, the Association for Community Empowerment, and the Kupat Clalit health maintenance organization, in cooperation with the global pharmaceutical company Pfizer's community program "The Right to Health is in Your Hands."

The doctors at the conference had a message for the women - cousins who want to marry each other must first take genetic tests to find whether they both carry a gene or genetic mutation that might cause a birth defect in their children. If only one carries the defective gene, the risk is very small.

...

Al-Badour, who has conducted dozens of genetic studies in the Bedouin community since 1992, has conducted some 600 scan tests during the past four months. A child whose parents both carry a genetic mutation has a nearly 25 percent chance of being born with the defect in question - deafness, blindness, mental retardation, metabolic diseases and diseases that damage the kidneys and nervous system.

[underlying]

Children of non-related couples have a 2-3% risk of birth defects, as opposed to first cousins having a 4-6% risk. Source: http://www.cousincouples.com/info/facts.shtml

Given the above, is it acceptable for first cousins to marry?

[Ron in Acreage]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/news/special_reports/carlitos/

Check out this article.

[Just Lori]

If this weren't so sad, an Arkansas joke would be appropriate.

[LauraleeBraswell]

""Given the above, is it acceptable for first cousins to marry?""


If one is adopted.

Other than that, it's incest.