Is it illegal for a brother and sister to marry in the US?

Question

How about a parent and their adult child? (serious question)

If Gay marriage is based on the premise of two consenting adults, what prevents siblings, and parent-to-adult child marriage? They too would be consenting adults.

Answer 1

Short answer: No
Long Answer: In the United States there is no federal statute covering this. Individual states however have ‘cousin marriage’ laws. Cousin Marriage laws decide at what level (1st cousin, 2nd cousin, etc) intra-family marriage is illegal and under what circumstances (for example, you may marry your first cousin in the state of Arizona if you cannot bear children). The law is designed to protect you from having children born with severe complications and in every state the scope begins at the first cousin level meaning that you CANNOT marry your sibling in any state (or territory).

Answer 2

First-cousin marriage without restriction is permitted in nineteen states—Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia—and the District of Columbia.


brother-sister and parent-child are illegal in all states.

Answer 3

State laws differ. You would need to check state laws. For siblings to marry I doubt it is allowed. Parent and child probably not in most states if any at all. Your logic is to simplistic. It is more than an agreement between two consenting adults. I see what you are trying to say but that is, again up to each state to decide.

Answer 4

I believe that it is illegal for a brother and sister to marry in all 50 states. It is legal for first cousins and other more distant relatives to get married in 21 states and in 5 more it's legal under certain circumstances. So in just over half the country it's legal to marry your first cousin. West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania rare the only states in the far eastern part of the country where it remains illegal under any circumstance to get married to a family member.

Answer 5

Close blood relatives are forbidden to marry for medical reasons. Interbreeding typically leads to awful genetic mutations.

Although unlikely, it is theoretically possible for two siblings to be separated at birth by adoption, never know about one another, meet as adults, and marry. However, if they eventually find out the marriage would be automatically voided.

Answer 6

Marriage laws were written with the idea of procreation in mind. Gays can’t procreate with each other, nor should relatives procreate because of the chance of physical and mental health issues associated with any children borne of the marriage.

I believe gays should be allowed to marry, but siblings and adult/child should never be allowed because of the state of mind of the family members. If they are in love with their immediate family, then there’s some mental illness going on there.

Nice to see you get along with your relatives that well, though! =;o)

Answer 7

This is not a serious question, and you've now asked it twice. What's the matter, haven't gotten the answer you want to hear yet?

It's a genetics issue, and one that you wouldn't get from a gay marriage. Same-sex couples can't have children with one another, and even if they could, the kid wouldn't be a genetic mutant.

Answer 8

Incest in this country is regulated through two parallel sets of laws: marriage regulations and criminal prohibitions. Marriage laws prohibit unions of parties within certain relationships of consanguinity (by blood) or affinity (by marriage). They declare such marriages void from the start.

Criminal laws prohibit marriage and sexual relationships based on the same ties (with the necessary consanguinity and affinity usually defined the same way as in the marriage laws). They penalize those who disobey with fines or imprisonment.

Every state today has a statute defining eligibility for marriage, and each and every one prohibits marriages between parents and children, sisters and brothers, uncles and nieces, and aunts and nephews. Some prohibit all ancestor/descendant marriages, regardless of degree. Four states extend the prohibition to marriages between parents and their adopted children.

Twenty-four states prohibit marriages between first cousins, and another seven permit them only under special circumstances. Utah, for example, permits first cousins to marry only provided both spouses are over age 65, or at least 55 with evidence of sterility. North Carolina permits first cousins to marry unless they are "double first cousins" (cousins through more than one line). Maine permits first cousins to marry only upon presentation of a certificate of genetic counseling. The remaining nineteen states and the District of Columbia permit first-cousin marriages without restriction.

Answer 9

Parent sibling is illegal. I found a reference for that. I have always heard that 3rd cousin is as close as the law allows but do not know any codes on it. Will have to do some looking.

Answer 10

Why are you considering such and idea, lol. In the United States, marriage between first cousins is illegal in some states, but not in others, and sociologists have classified marriage laws in the United States into two categories: one in which the definitions of incest are taken from the Bible, which frowns upon marriage within one's lineage but less so on one's blood relatives; and one that frowns more on marriage between blood relatives (such as cousins), but less on that within one's lineage.