Darwin’s theory of evolution included marriage to his first cousin

From The Times March 20, 2010

Darwin’s theory of evolution included marriage to his first cousin

First cousins: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, with five of their children
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Frances Gibb, Legal Editor 8 Comments
Recommend? (4) Marriages between parents and children, brothers and sisters, are not only taboo, they are unlawful.

Despite the long line of family relationships banned in English law, however, marriage between first cousins is not one of them.

Famous first-cousin marriages include that of Charles Darwin who wed his first cousin Emma Wedgwood, of the china manufacturing family. They had ten children with a poor record of survival and health: three died in childhood or at birth and five were ill or disabled.

He was not exceptional: Albert Einstein married his cousin, Elsa Lowenthal; Queen Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert. Of their nine children, one had haemophilia and died at 31; two more were carriers and passed it on to their children.

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Farther back in history, Isaac married Rebekah, his first cousin once removed, according to Genesis; and Jacob married two of his first cousins, Rachel and Leah.

According to Baroness Deech, it is common practice throughout the world, except in the West.

Between 20 and 50 per cent of all Muslim marriages are said to be consanguineous and 8.5 per cent of all births are to parents related by blood. Religions vary as to what they allow. The Koran prohibits uncle-niece marriages, even though these are permitted by Jews and Hindus. Yet uncle-niece marrages involve the same amount of inbreeding as marriages between cousins — with 12.5 per cent of genes being identical.

The 1981 Marriage Law in China bans cousins from marrying and in the United States it is banned in 25 states. Yet it is allowed in California and most eastern US states. Marriage between cousins is allowed in Britain and Europe — all nations, Lady Deech notes, that understand “the risks in heredity”.

In England and Wales, incest — sexual intercourse between a man and his mother, daughter, sister, half-sister or grandaughter, or between a woman over 16 and her father, son, brother, half-brother or grandfather — is prohibited in law and punishable by up to seven years in prison or, with a girl aged under 13, by up to life imprisonment.

The prohibitions stem in part from concerns about the medical risks. The actual level of risk in marriage between cousins is disputed but, Lady Deech says, most scientific analysts agree that there will be “twice as many sick children (4 per cent) as in others who are not related”. “Depending on one’s perspective . . . this is an acceptable or unacceptable outcome”.

The death rate in late pregnancy and early infancy of babies born to parents who are cousins is three times that in the general population.