Can you marry your own niece or nephew? The answer to that is yes. The Dutch government has no objection to this. Cousins make love lightly, is such an expression. But it has now been proven that if cousins marry each other, there is no danger. Because children born from a marriage between a cousin and a cousin are not at all likely to have abnormalities. Yet many people find it strange that a cousin and a niece enter into a relationship.
Dangers of cousin marriage
It is always said that a marriage between a cousin and a cousin produces defective children. But research has shown that these dangers are greatly exaggerated in the West. In the past, a relationship between family members in that form was even very good for people’s health. Diseases such as malaria and leprosy were unable to withstand this union. Because parents passed on their good genes to their children, immunity against diseases increased. IN areas where there used to be a lot of malaria and leprosy, there were relatively many marriages between cousins. The genes that protected against the diseases were passed on through that family bond, so that the children from such a relationship were very well protected.
However, there is a greater risk of health problems and congenital defects
Yet there is also a bit of truth in all that old wisdom. If cousins marry or enter into a relationship, there is a greater risk of health problems and congenital defects in children of parents who are related to each other. The risk is one and a half times greater than for parents who are not related to each other. For parents who are not related, the risk that something is wrong with the children is 2 percent. However, social psychologist Ashley Hoben, a Canadian researcher, believes that people estimate the risk to be greater than it actually is. A child whose mother drinks alcohol or uses drugs during pregnancy has a much greater risk of abnormalities.
Aversion to a relationship between family members
In the West we are not very fond of family members entering into a relationship with each other. Most people in the West consider a relationship between cousins to be incestuous. Most women mainly think about the consequences for any offspring. However, if love is involved, women in particular are okay with it.
Cousins often married each other in the past
Yet marriages or unions between cousins have not always been strange. In the centuries behind us it was very common for cousins to marry each other.
Celebrity marriages between cousins
The famous people below all married a cousin or a cousin. They include:
- Charles Darwin
- Albert Einstein
- Edgar Allen Poe
- Queen Victoria
In the US, marriage between cousins is prohibited
In the United States, cousins are not allowed to marry each other. In many Middle Eastern countries it is very normal to marry a family member.
In the Netherlands, cousins are allowed to marry each other
In the Netherlands, but also in Belgium, cousins are allowed to marry each other, despite the fact that people always think that this is not allowed. However, an attempt was made a few years ago to impose such a ban in the Netherlands. However, the discussion was mainly prompted by the assumption that many women from Islamic countries were forced to marry a family member in the Netherlands. Research then showed that 1 in 4 Turkish or Moroccan women marries a family member. The proposal also did not make it, and there was a lot of criticism.