. Assuming the relationship, if it prospers it is worth considering the issue of children, widely debated due to the risks that inbreeding can entail. It would also probably make things awkward at the family meetings. First cousins in Montana are not allowed to marry, but they can have sexual relations and cohabitate. Some states have additional restrictions or details regarding their cousin The Supreme Court of Kansas, in Estate of Loughmiller, recognized a first-cousin marriage legally solemnized in a foreign jurisdiction despite the states cousin ban.204629 P.2d at 15760. Stat. Perhaps the Court would have avoided its offhand remark on consanguinity had it realized the extent of the discriminatory treatment first cousins face in exercising the marriage right. J. Hum. The dynamic of our constitutional system is that individuals need not await legislative action before asserting a fundamental right.). Code Ann., Fam. Indeed, the couple launched a campaign petitioning the Utah legislature to legalize their love.9Angie Peang, Allow First Cousins to Marry in Utah, Care2 Petitions, https://www.thepetitionsite.com/954/693/035/allow-first-cousins-to-marry-in-utah [https://perma.cc/8PCF-RAJ3] (seeking 2,000 signatures to urge the Utah legislature to overhaul its outdated laws). See supra Section II.B.3. Technically, inbreeding is said to increase homozygosity [a property that increases the probability of suffering a genetic disease due to recessive genes]. See generally A.H. Bittles, The Bases of Western Attitudes to Consanguineous Marriage, 45 Developmental Med. validation of laws based on moral choices.); see generally Courtney Megan Cahill, Same-Sex Marriage, Slippery Slope Rhetoric, and the Politics of Disgust: A Critical Perspective on Contemporary Family Discourse and the Incest Taboo, 99 Nw. . Accord Metteer, supra note 18, at 275; see also Dvera Cohn & Jeffrey S. Passel, A Record 64 Million Americans Live in Multigenerational Households, Pew Rsch. at 38384; Grossman & Friedman, supra note 51, at 39. . 3d 1056, 1065 (D. Alaska 2014) (finding. Bratt, supra note 17, at 27681; see also I. Glenn Cohen, Regulating Reproduction: The Problem with Best Interests, 96 Minn. L. Rev. These states are: The following states are where cousin marriages are completely illegal in: Marrying your cousin is considered to be a taboo in various cultures. Biogenetic Research Empirically Weighs Against the Cousin Bans. Emily Dickinson once said, The heart wants what it wants, or else it does not care.. The justifications undergirding the cousin bans are extremely weak on their merits,237See supra Sections II.B.1II.B.3. These links are called inbred, that is, they are made within the same group, in this case, blood relatives. 25, 2012), https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/508067 [https://perma.cc/M75M-6MZW] (quoting Bittles as stating that there is a mere 3 to 4% higher risk of illness and early death in children of consanguineous couples above the general population and that the risks apply primarily to couples who are carriers of disorders that are normally very, very rare, while [f]or over 90% of cousin marriages, their risk [of having a child with a genetic abnormality] is the same as it is for the general population (second alteration in original)). New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development In Etheridge v. Shaddock, the Supreme Court of Arkansas, when validating a marriage despite the states cousin ban, announced it was adopting the majority view in finding cousin marriage to be an innocent form of consanguineous unions.228706 S.W.2d 395, 396 (Ark. . According to one study published in 2014, 2050 percent of marriages or more are consanguineous in North and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and West, Central, and South Asia, regions with a collective population of over a billion persons. Six states provide exceptions to blanket prohibitions.45They are Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Utah, Wisconsin, and Maine. 586, 589 (S.D. Thus, adopted siblings can marry each other without any restrictions posed by the government of the state. [but] in the case before us this right is the exclusive precondition to the adjustment of a fundamental human relationship.). However, despite its commonality, if you are planning to marry your cousin, make sure to pay your doctor a visit. Though international custom by no means binds our jurisprudence, the Supreme Court has indicated global consensus is a relevant factor in evaluating the constitutionality of marriage regulation.292See, e.g., United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. 744, 808 (2013) (Alito, J., dissenting) (Nor is the right to same-sex marriage deeply rooted in the traditions of other nations. Part I will introduce the history of first-cousin relationships and the national statutory landscape regarding first-cousin relations, to be referred to throughout as the cousin bans. Part II will outline the constitutional right to marry, how this right works in conjunction with the states significant role in regulating marriage, and the appropriate standard of judicial review applied to a right to marry challenge.
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