One of Britain’s foremost experts on child health has defended the right for first cousins to marry and dismissed concerns about inbreeding.
Professor Dominic Wilkinson, an NHS neonatologist and ethics expert at the University of Oxford, argued a ban on cousin marriages, recently proposed by MPs, was ‘unethical’.
Instead, Professor Wilkinson said such couples should be offered special advanced screening on the taxpayer to help them decide if they should have children.
He even claimed a ban on cousin marriage, already implemented in some European countries, represented a loss of freedoms in Britain.
Writing for The Conversation he said: ‘A ban on cousin marriage to reduce the rates of illness or learning problems in their offspring would represent an attempt to prevent certain people from having children for the sake of benefiting the population.’
He added a policy of ‘restricting basic freedoms’ of individuals to marry and have children with who they choose based on their ‘perceived genetic fitness to reproduce’ was ‘troubling’.
Data suggests the risk of a child of first cousins developing a genetic condition is about 6 per cent, double that compared to children from unrelated parents.
However, Professor Wilkinson argued that the health justifications of such a ban were flawed since the vast majority of such children will be born healthy.
This graphic, from NHS material distributed to couples in Bradford, explains some of the genetic risks of having children with a close relative. Two parents with a recessive gene have an increased chance of having a child with an inherited condition
Professor Dominic Wilkinson, a neonatologist at the NHS’s John Radcliffe Hospital and an expert in ethics at the University of Oxford , claims a proposed ban on cousin marriage wasn’t ethical
’94 per cent of children will not have genetic or congenital problems,’ he wrote.
‘Or to put it another way, given the small additional risk, over 30 couples would have to be prevented from marrying to prevent one child from being born with an inherited genetic problem’.
From there such couples could then decide on if they should have children together, adopt or use reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilization (IVF).
He said while such screening, which costs about £1,200 privately, isn’t currently available on the NHS an exception could be made for such couples.
The medic also called for greater education among families and young people to raise awareness of the increased risk of cousin marriage.
‘We should be concerned about higher rates of illness in the children of parents who are related. But the ethical answer isn’t to ban them from getting married,’ he said.
Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay, Richard Holden used data on the increased risk of health problems among children born from cousin marriages to call for a ban late last year.
‘Studies show that it is associated with approximately double the rate of birth defects compared to the general population and can reinforce negative structures and control women,’ he told the House of Commons.
This map, by Professor Alan Bittles an Australian expert in genomics, shows rates of consanguineous marriage, that between cousins, around the world
Marriages between certain blood relatives — as well as some step relationships — is already illegal.
However, it is still legal to marry your cousin in the UK, despite the health risks.
Cousin marriage has been popular among certain British communities such as those of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage.
When parents are close genetic relatives, babies roughly have double the chance of developing a host of health problems.
These include blindness, hearing loss, neonatal diabetes, blood disorders, limb malformations, low IQ, cleft palate, heart problems, cystic fibrosis, and even death.
Risks of such conditions broadly increases if there is a family history of inbreeding, as genetic errors can compound between generations.
During conception, children receive one copy of genes from each parent, with the harmful genetic mutations typically overridden by healthier genes.
But when closely related individuals have a child there is a decrease in genetic variation, resulting in an increased risk of harmful mutations remaining and causing problems.
Existing legislation states the prohibited degrees of relationship for marriage include those to a sibling, parent or child, but not marriages between first cousins, like Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
Experts previously found that a preference for cousin marriage among British Pakistanis was a contributing factor in child mortality rates in Bradford and for about a third of birth defects.
NHS studies between 2007-11 found consanguineous marriages, a genetics term meaning parents are at least second cousins or more closely related, accounted for 60 per cent of marital unions in people of Pakistani heritage in Bradford.
This figure has since dropped to 46 per cent, researchers say.
Reasons behind the fall are thought to include higher educational attainment, stricter immigration rules and changes in family dynamics.
Mr Holden’s bill is proposing to ban the marriage of first cousins is due to discussed in the House of Commons on Friday.
First cousin marriages were once far more common and include some famous historical figures.
The father-of-evolution Charles Darwin married his first cousin Emma Wedgwood, and the famous physicist Albert Einstein married his first cousin Elsa Lowenthal.
Authors Edgar Allan Poe and H.G. Wells were also known to have married their cousins.
The British Royal family have also, like many among the European nobility, engaged in consanguineous unions.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were first cousins, sharing a set of grandparents.
In more modern times, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s first wife was his cousin Sajida Talfah.
Musician Jerry Lee Lewis, of ‘Great Balls of Fire’ fame controversially married his cousin Myra Gale Lewis Williams when she was just 13, he was 22 at the time.
