NHS defends cousin marriages because ‘only 15 percent lead to birth defects’ (www.yahoo.com)

submitted 4 months ago by bytesonbike@discuss.online to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

66 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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”.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world -2 points 4 months ago

An unfortunate aspect of Pakistani culture that has carried over to the UK.

Families would marry within the family to keep their wealth within the family.

Unfortunately after successive generations, this can cause serious problems.

[-] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 months ago

Thank god no European family of significance has ever done anything like this.

spoiler

[-] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world -2 points 4 months ago

Obviously they have, it's just very few and far between.

It's a bit silly to bring up royal families and pretend their lifestyles are similar to that of the common man.

Look at this map and tell me the issue is European culture.

[-] wesdym@mastodon.social 3 points 4 months ago

@TheGrandNagus 0% is definitely wrong for ANY place, but I get that they mean 'too low to measure/count' or something like that. But I still suspect that's just ignoring reality, out of convenience. (No data, no evidence. But they know better.) After that, you need to define terms, which I'm not seeing here. You need to define a lot more, too, such as class/caste distinctions, which I'd bet are highly relevant in many or most cases.

This looks like a cheap way to call some places backwards.

[-] SphereofWreckening@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It reads like a dogwhistle for xenophobia. I deleted my original comment because I had second thoughts that OP was referring strictly the article and I misunderstood. I'm starting to think my original thought wasn't too far off, though.

[-] Tja@programming.dev 1 points 4 months ago

404 humor not found

this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2026

87 points (95.8% liked)

Not The Onion

21657 readers

360 users here now

Welcome

We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!

The Rules

Posts must be:

Links to news stories from...
...credible sources, with...
...their original headlines, that...
...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”

Please also avoid duplicates.

Comments and post content must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, ableist, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.

And that’s basically it!

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

kescusay@lemmy.world