Apparently there is a saying out there in the world "Why marry a stranger?" Sadly, that phrase is supposed to give you support while you are seriously contemplating asking your first cousin to marry you or you are seriously considering their proposal.
I always thought it was a widely accepted medical fact that fucking any one of the children from your blood related aunts or uncles was a sure way to put in a bid on birthing some new incurable disadvantageous genetic abomination.
Worldwide 1 out of five marriages are between first cousins. That's mind boggling to me.
How long can you keep doing that before you develop an eyeball in the middle of your palm?
But hey they say Einstein married his cousin, so did Charles Darwin (and that fucker should've known better) and so did Queen Victoria but she is royalty.
Royalty doesn't count.
More often that not they kept it in the family, sometimes the immediate family.
Evidently America is one of the few countries in the world that actually outlaws fucking people that share the same grandparents.
24 states in the US forbid first cousin marriages, another 7 restrict them, which must mean that they forbid them by technicality, Utah apparently will let you marry your first cousin if you both are over 65 years of age and the other 19 have no restrictions whatsoever.
I know you think that you know which states allow first cousins to marry but I think you might be surprised.
Like for example, my first choice would've been West Virginia . If this was family feud I would've been disappointed had that answer not gotten 1st place. However what this little study has reminded me is that there is a difference between outlawing something and people just ignoring the law and doing it anyway. West Virginia might have outlawed marrying first cousins but since half of the population of West Virginia are affectionately known as "Hill People" they have a serious problem disseminating that information to a population accustom to living on a diet of road kill or whatever wayward nature lover they can lure into a bear trap.
Did you know that there are no laws forbidding the marriage of first cousins exist in Canada , Mexico , France , Germany , or any other country in Europe ?
I didn't either.
Now just because it isn't forbidden in Europe doesn't mean that it is the preferred relationship.
No, if you want to go where marrying your first cousin is actually preferred you're going to have to go to the middle-east or Africa .
Then you have your isolated populations that have been "Noahing" each other for generations like the Ashkenazi Jews and the Mennonites.
But like the royalty thing I mentioned above Ashkenazi Jews and Mennonites are in a category all to themselves.
In 2000, the National Society of Genetic Counselors convened a panel of experts to study first-cousin marriage risks. They found that first cousins are only 1.7 to 2.8 percent more likely to have a child with one eye in the center of his forehead, a cleft pallet and one nostril.
Personally, I thought it would be more like 95%
The panel predicted that eventually evidence about the actual risks of first cousin marriages will eventually wipe these sort of laws off the books.
Silly Rabbit. Laws don't get stripped out of the books because they aren't supported by scientific facts.
At least not laws that are bound by the " yuk phenomenon".
That is why homosexuals still can't legally do shit.
The " Yuk Phenomenon ".
I'm telling you, legally it's the kiss of death.