They don't have far to go!
With that said cousin marrige isn't such a great idea. The first go-around may only hold slightly higher birth defect rates, but lets try marrying cousins who are kids of people who married cousins before. Retard kids are NOT a good idea.
I am not saying that it is a good idea, medically, but that it is not an affront to morality.
My father's aunt married her first cousin (it was legal in Virginia, and remains so today, I believe-- it is illegal in West Virginia to marry even a second cousin-- ironic, hunh?), and the descendants tend to be fine, upstanding, successful people. One of the descendants is a wonderful, cultured man who, with his charming wife gives parties for the family every so many years at his beautiful estate. He is active with the local art museum, loves to work in his beautiful gardens, and has a nice family.
Other descendants of this union of first cousins include a retired professor of nuclear physics, another college professor who plays in a local symphony, and many other smart, fine people.
One arguable advantage of marrying kin is that you might well know more about them and their genes before you marry them. How many people have unknowingly married into families with serious mental disease, perhaps even a family in which almsot all the men commit suicide. If you marry your cousins, you may know enough to avoid the line with serious mental health problems. How many engaged young people tell their intended about their crazy relatives. ( A few do, but not many do).
I married someone from far away with no family connection to mine, and I am happy about my choice, but I do not think there is anything immoral or even stupid about married a second cousin, for example (unless it happens to be illegal in your State-- then it would be stupid).
If first cousin marriage is legal and acceptable in Europe and the majority of american States, then it is a part of Western Sexual Morality. Forbidding first cousin marriage is what is breaking down Western Sexual morality and is odd, and kinky.
sO9
And why is that? I am from a very civilized area--Roanoke, VA--and I am the descendent of a series of first- and second-cousin marriages. Of my father's four grandparents, three of them were cousins, two of them first, the other second. And each generation behind them tells pretty much the same story. When my father died two years ago at age 84, we were taken by surprise b/c he died at a much younger age than his brothers. And he had been healthy all his life. So am I and all my cousins, nieces and nephews. We are not three-eyed, most of us have college degrees and above and live normal lives. In fact, some of us are conservatives, even freepers in good standing. Since the time of the American Revolution and earlier, we have helped settle this country and have given our lives in every war this great nation has fought. What's this about breaking down our country's sexual morality? On the contrary, we helped build it!