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Dispatches reveals the tragic consequences of first cousin marriage in Britain. Every year such marriages cause hundreds of children to be born with terrible disabilities; one third of whom are so ill that they die before they are five years old.

The practice is most common in Britain's Pakistani community, in which more than 50% of people marry their first cousin, and in Bradford 75% of ethnic Pakistanis follow the tradition.

It is also common in some Middle Eastern and East African communities here, and in the UK's Bangladeshi community, nearly a quarter of people marry their first cousins.

It also happens in the white British community: Dispatches features a couple, first-cousins-once-removed, whose daughter died of a genetic disease.

The medical risks include infant mortality, birth defects, learning difficulties, blindness, hearing impairment and metabolic disorders. As adults, the offspring of these relationships also risk sporadic abortions or infertility.

Reporter Tazeen Ahmad meets affected families, including one with three children with serious degenerative genetic diseases. Tazeen's own grandparents were first cousins: five of their children died before the age of ten, and three of her uncles were deaf.

Dispatches questions why no major national publicity campaign warns of these health risks. At-risk couples in some areas are offered genetic counselling, with some being offered selection of embryos or terminations, but as only 40% of recessive disorders can be medically tested for, this is of limited use.

Even talking about the practice is controversial. And, although many British studies have established the risks, people still deny the dangers and extol the benefits of marrying within the family. But others within the community say the risks should be publicised.

eyes-only wrote:I suppose there is only one way to convince the sceptic in you and that is for you to test it out yourself.

I'm not at all sceptical about this because it is something I've always heard of...you are supposed to marry someone opposite to you to strengthen your genes. Allah gave you the knowledge so you shouldn't ignore it.

qoraxeey wrote:i could never sleep with my cousin . let alone have kids with him

eeewww shruugs

WestLdnShawty wrote:Every offspring *of cousins who married* that I've come across have been healthy Alhamdullah.. And since Allah made it Halaal.. than I dont see anything wrong with it.

Just cos westerners and non-muslims find it nasty doesn't mean it is..