04-13-2024, 05:52 PM
Ted King wrote:
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/04/us/fe...usins.html
First cousins are somewhat more likely than unrelated parents to have a child with a serious birth defect, mental retardation or genetic disease, but their increased risk is nowhere near as large as most people think, the scientists said.
In the general population, the risk that a child will be born with a serious problem like spina bifida or cystic fibrosis is 3 percent to 4 percent; to that background risk, first cousins must add another 1.7 to 2.8 percentage points, the report said.
Is a couple of percent enough risk to discourage first cousins from having children? I don't think there is an objective way to determine that. I think it is worth making sure the first cousins are aware of the amount of risk but I think the risk is low enough that I would leave it to them to decide.
The problem isn't with 1st cousins having kids.
It's with multiple generations of 1st cousins having kids.
The kids of inbred 1st cousins are very close to siblings genetically.
It doesn't take long before you have a bunch of kids with crazy Hapsburg faces.
