What are the effects of having a child with your cousin?
First cousins are somewhat more likely than unrelated parents to have a child with a serious birth defect, mental retardation or genetic disease, but their increased risk is nowhere near as large as most people think, the scientists said.
Its estimated that 4 to 7 percent of children born from first-cousin marriages have birth defects, compared to 3 to 4 percent for children born from distantly related marriages. Thats not nothing, but its also not the end of the world—or the family tree.
Dear Shibabrata Pattanayak , different studies revealed that children born from parents who were closely related increases the risks of having a baby with potentially life-threatening birth defects. Marrying within a family can lead to abnormalities in your future offspring.