Marriage between first cousins 'doubles risk of having baby with birth defects'

[Northerner]

Marriage between first cousins more than doubles the chance of having a baby with potentially life-threatening birth defects, a study of births in Bradford has revealed.

From a sample of nearly 11,000 births between 2007 and 2011, more than 2,000 babies were born to first cousin parents ? predominately from the city?s large Pakistani population. The children of such unions, which represented more than a third of all the Pakistani-origin babies in the study, had a six per cent chance of having a congenital abnormality, compared to an average 3 per cent chance.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...th-lifethreatening-birth-defects-8686232.html

Didn't Darwin marry his first cousin? 😱

 

[LeeLee]

There was a Radio4 programme about this recently. They interviewed women with disabled children who simply hadn't known the risks. The wider family of one of them still denies the problem. Education is the key... who will turn it?

 

[moonymama]

i thought there was an injection of something (cant remember details) that could prevent this from happening...mind you that was ages ago....cos it used to be taboo... no first cousins...then it was ok...it used to be against the law years ago didnt it? then the law changed.....so how has this popped its ugly head up again now?