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NHS defends cousin marriages because ‘only 15 percent lead to birth defects’ (www.yahoo.com)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world
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Midwives have been told about the benefits of “close relative marriage” in training documents that minimise the risks to couples’ children.

The documents claim “85 to 90 per cent of cousin couples do not have affected children” and warn staff that “close relative marriage is often stigmatised in England”, adding claims that “the associated genetic risks have been exaggerated”.

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[–] 2 points 9 months ago*

You're right, I shouldn't try doing these calculations in my head.

But qualitatively, same conclusion: cousin marriage roughly doubles the risk of hereditary disease for each kid, from 2.55% (the NHS publishes stats on it) to 5.27%.

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