England’s National Health Service Memory-Holes Its Defense of Incest

On September 22, the Genomics Education Programme of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service published an article titled, “Should the UK government ban first-cousin marriage?” The answer to such a question should obviously be a firm “yes.” Yet the article takes a logically circuitous route to arrive at “no,” and even defends incest because condemnation might offend a supposed victim class.

Despite acknowledging that children born of a consanguineous marriage are at an increased risk of genetic conditions, the article summons the authority of the British Society for Genetic Medicine and suggests we shouldn’t be too critical of first-cousin marriages because doing so “stigmatises certain communities, undermines trust in medical services and causes couples to disengage from clinical support.” The article attempts to downplay the health consequences of inbreeding, writing that “in the general population, a child’s chance of being born with a genetic condition is around 2%–3%” and “this increases to 4%–6% in children of first cousins,” therefore “most children of first cousins are healthy.” Rather shockingly, the NHS says this doubling in risk is just a “small” increase.

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Abigail Anthony

Abigail Anthony is a staff writer at National Review.

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On September 22, the Genomics Education Programme of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service published an article titled, “Should the UK government ban first-cousin marriage?” The answer to such a question should obviously be a firm “yes.” Yet the article takes a logically circuitous route to arrive at “no,” and even defends incest because condemnation might offend a supposed victim class.

Despite acknowledging that children born of a consanguineous marriage are at an increased risk of genetic conditions, the article summons the authority of the British Society for Genetic Medicine and suggests we shouldn’t be too critical of first-cousin marriages because doing so “stigmatises certain communities, undermines trust in medical services and causes couples to disengage from clinical support.” The article attempts to downplay the health consequences of inbreeding, writing that “in the general population, a child’s chance of being born with a genetic condition is around 2%–3%” and “this increases to 4%–6% in children of first cousins,” therefore “most children of first cousins are healthy.” Rather shockingly, the NHS says this doubling in risk is just a “small” increase.