is it illegal to marry or have sexual intercourse with your first cousin?

Question

I was looking at the louisiana law section about sex offenders and stuff and it defined incest as the sexual intercourse or marriage with ascendent, descendent, aunt or niece, uncle or nephew but i dont see anywhere in there talking about cousins and ive always been told that getting married to your cousin is illegal. im not thinking about doing it but i was just curious. thanx!!

Answer 1

I believe it is illegal in some states. I am not sure about Louisiana.

If marriage is the issue, you can always get married in another state, as all states are required to recognize marriages from every other state.

It is not always an issue because a first cousin is not always a blood relation, and a first cousin once removed is like a 2nd cousin.

There is the issue of inbreeding, which is greatly exaggerated, but there is still some risk.

Marriage licenses are issued on a County level of government, not state. You might want to check your city and county laws also.

Answer 2

Your main problem is with birth defects. In the past a good portion or the british royal family were from cousin marriges and most of them are reasnobly ok (well sort of anyway). There is a suggestion of a couple of quite serious genetic defects in the royal family, most notibly the madness of king george. You need to go see a genetic counsellor. They can talk to you both about your risks, and do some genetic testing for some common conditions. Then you need to decide what you want to do. I am assuming cousin marriages are legal where you are ? You may want to go down the route of donor sperm to reduce your risks of genetic conditions (depending on what the genetic counsellor says).

Answer 3

I don't know about illegal and I won't waste my time trying to find out. But how about the fact that it is immoral, perverted and disgusting. Sex offenders are already sick... when they take it to the incest level, that goes beyond disgusting. There is no punishment good enough for sick idiots like that.

Answer 4

In the state of TN it has to at least be your third cousin before you can "breed" or get married. Anything before that is incest.

Answer 5

I honestly don't know too much about that state, but the law everywhere else says no, you cannot marry your relatives. They probably just forgot to put that part in that says cousin.

Answer 6

as we can observe and what we knew from many sources of info like on t.v, radio, etc.,there are many cases like that..and in some way..i don't think it is allowed coz those who r involved n this case..still have an interrelation to 1 another..and in the near future,their child would most likely to have abnormalities in many aspects

Answer 7

It is illegal in LA, but legal elsewhere. See link.

http://www.ncsl.org/programs/cyf/cousins.htm

Answer 8

It's legal in the South.