FAMILY MATTERS
Is it legal to marry my cousin in the UK and how does it affect our children?
Cousin marriage has been found to have a shocking effect on the rate of babies having birth defects
FIRST-COUSIN marriage has become a hotly debated topic in the UK.
A former Conservative minister made the case to parliament that the practice should be completely outlawed. But what are the current laws surrounding first cousin marriage?
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First-cousin marriage in the UK
In the UK, there is no legal ban on two cousins having a relationship or getting married.
It's actually quite common, with 10 per cent of marriages around the world being between first or second cousins.
Standard marriage laws apply, so you need to be over the age of 18 if you want to get married without parental consent.
In Europe, first-cousin marriages were quite common until the 19th Century.
Charles Darwin married his first cousin Emma Wedgewood in 1839 and Queen Victoria married her first cousin Prince Albert in 1840.
It was practice more common with societal elites and aristocrats, so, when social mobility became easier, it began to die out.
A parliamentary ban?
On December 10, 2024, a Conservative MP named Richard Holden called for first-cousin marriages to be banned.
He argued that the children of first cousins are at greater risk of birth defects, so prohibiting the practice would protect public health.
The MP argued that first cousin marriage was now extremely uncommon in Western countries and was now more common in diaspora communities.
According to Richard, the rate of first cousin marriage in Irish traveller and British Pakistani communities was "extremely high" at 20-40%.
Speaking in parliament, Richard claimed that the practice threatened women's freedom.
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He said: "Women and girls living under a clan mentality often know the scientific risks of first-cousin marriage, but make considered social and cultural calculations.
"Strict honour codes, where expressions of individuality can be subject to social isolation, violence and even death in some cases, dominate thinking."
Independent MP Iqbal Mohamed spoke out against Richard’s proposal and argued that banning first-cousin marriage was not “enforceable”.
Health problems
There have been many studies into how a relationship between first-cousins can affect their children.
According to Alan Bittles from the Centre of Comparative Genetics in Australia, the risk of birth defects rises from roughly 2 percent to 4 percent for first cousins.
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There is an increased risk of autosomal recessive inheritance, which is where a condition is passed down because two parents share a faulty gene.
As cousins are likely to have very similar genes, the risk of autosomal recessive inheritance and, therefore the passing on of diseases including cystic fibrosis, is much higher.
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