• The Secretary of Health calls the ‘shocking’ council, says that such unions are ‘high -risk and insecure’
• MP IQBAL
London: The National Health Service of Great Britain (NHS) has been found in the center of a political and cultural row after an education program backed by the published government, and then eliminated in silence, the online orientation that describes the potential benefits of the marriage of cousins.
The Secretary of Health of the United Kingdom, Wes Streeting, described the “shocking” council and demanded an apology, saying that the marriages of cousins are “high -risk and insecure.” MP IQBAL MOHAMED, however, defended unions as culturally significant for many families.
Speaking in the commons, he recognized health risks, but said that many families see such unions as positive for building bonds and financial security, urging genetic detection instead of a prohibition.
The document, published by the NHS England Genomic Education program last week, declared that consanguineous unions can provide “wider extended family support systems and economic advantages”, even when it recognized the greatest risk of certain genetic conditions among the children of related parents.
Deputy Tory Richard Holden, who has proposed legislation to prohibit cousin marriages, condemned the document, asking the NHS to “stop taking the knee to harmful and oppressive cultural practices.” Holden also linked prime marriage to immigration and women’s rights, saying that practice “should end forever.”
For Monday, September 29, the guide seemed to have been withdrawn from the NHS website.
The new research of Yougov shows that the three quarters of the British (77 percent) say that the first cousin’s prime marriage should not be legal, with only 9 percent thinking that the law should remain as it is. Prohibiting the first cousin’s cousin marriage is popular in the main matches, with 76-77pc of labor voters, Lib and third parties opposed to practice, as well as the 82pc of voters of reform of the United Kingdom.
The study
The genomic education program that is directed by Health Education England aims to improve the “genetic literacy” of health and public professionals. Its blog publication of September 22 entitled “Should the government of the United Kingdom Government prohibit the marriage of the first cousins?”
The document emphasized that the marriage of the first cousin remains legal in the United Kingdom under the 1949 marriage law and that the government “has no current plans” to change this.
He pointed out that while the risk that a child was born with a genetic condition increases from approximately 2 to 3 % in the general population to 4-6pc for children from cousins, “most children of the first cousins are healthy.”
The guide also cited Bradford’s investigation that suggests that “endogamy” (marrying within a united community) can be a more significant factor in the genetic risk than the cousin marriage itself.
He also warned that the stigmatization of practice can deter couples of seeking help, with the British society of genetic medicine instead of advocating premarital genomic tests, specific education and voluntary advice as more effective ways to reduce risk.
In February of this year, a BBC The investigation showed how cousin marriage develops in the field. His Bradford report, which is home to one of the largest Pakistani communities in the United Kingdom, found that the marriage of the first cousins remains “quite common” but is slowly decreasing.
Born In Bradford’s study, which traced more than 13,000 children, found that approximately one in six had parents who were first cousins. The researchers found that children with first cousins were more likely to have speech and language problems (11pc versus 7pc for unrelated parents); that were less likely to reach a government reference point for “good development” at age five (54pc versus 64pc); And they visited primary care doctors more frequently, that is, approximately four times a year on average compared to three for children not related to children.
Professor Sam Oddie of Bradford’s teaching hospitals told the BBC “I have seen fatal skin conditions, fatal brain conditions, fatal muscle conditions.”
He said that such conditions were remarkably more common in Bradford, remembering families who lost several children with the same genetic disorder: “deeply annoying and difficult to understand.”
But the same BBC The story emphasizes that many health professionals, including Professor Oddie, argue that it is “excessive simplification” to blame only cousin marriage. Endogamy, not only direct blood ties, can group genetic variants.
Endogamy is not exclusive to Pakistani communities in the United Kingdom. It is also a problem in the Jewish community of the United Kingdom already worldwide among Canadians Amish and also French.
Professor Oddie said that it is simplistic to blame only cousin marriage, noting that shared genes within nearby communities, or inbreeding, play an important role in inherited disorders.
BBC The interviews found more young women who choose “love marriages” as education and social exposure grow, with marriages between mothers of Pakistani origin in Bradford that fall from 40 percent to 27 percent in a decade.
Posted in Dawn, October 5, 2025
