Question: is it illegal to marry your second cousin uk

Answer: Yes, There has been a great deal of debate in the past few years in the United Kingdom about whether to discourage cousin marriages through government public relations campaigns or ban them entirely. The debate has been prompted by a Pakistani immigrant population making up 1.5% of the British population, of whom about 50-70% marry a first cousin. In the 1980s researchers found that children to closely related Pakistani parents had an autosomal recessive condition rate of 4% compared to 0.1% for the European group. For example, Environment Minister (later Immigration Minister) Phil Woolas said in 2008, ``If you have a child with your cousin the likelihood is there'll be a genetic problem'' and that such marriages were the ``elephant in the room''. Physician Mohammad Walji has spoken out against the practice, saying that it is a ``very significant'' cause of infant death, and his practice has produced leaflets warning against it. However, Alan Bittles of the Centre for Comparative Genomics in Australia states that the risk of birth defects rises from roughly 2% in the general population to 4% for first cousins and therefore that ``It would be a mistake to ban it''. Aamra Darr of the University of Leeds has also criticized what she called an ``alarmist presentation of data'' that exaggerates the risk.