I think that’s a prevailing (though incorrect) idea, that the first cousins of your parents are your second cousins. The first cousin of your parent is your first cousin once removed. As you stated, the son of your mother’s first cousin is your second cousin. The child of a second cousin, in addition to being your second cousin once removed, would also be the third cousin of your children (if you have any).
The views on cousin marriage, especially first cousins, have changed a lot in the last 100 years or so. The increase in population, access to travel and the understanding of genetics (the risks involved in first cousins having children together) has made it much more socially unacceptable. The risk of second cousins reproducing is significantly less risky, but the social stigma and ‘icky-ness’ is definitely a factor.
But in the early 1900s and before, the pool of potential mates was often very small, especially in rural areas. My paternal grandfather’s parents were first cousins who had grown up next door to one another (adjacents farms in rural North Georgia). My grandfather had a very healthy mind (intelligent, successful in business and the kindest human being I have ever known), but he had his first heart attack at age 43 and another at 49. Over the next 23 years, he suffered two more heart attacks (and a quadruple bypass that almost took his life) and several strokes until his death at age 73. He had two siblings- an older brother who was very unstable emotionally and a younger sister who was mentally handicapped. Expanding the gene pool is always a good idea. If you can’t find someone to marry (and/or have children with) that isn’t your first or second cousin in 2016, you have bigger issues to worry about!
In terms of genetic risk, is is a better idea to parent children with a more diverse gene pool, and it is useful to know about the risks. But there is no reason to get hysterical about it and start throwing around loaded words like Immoral and Disgusting and Hillbilly.
Three almost unrelated issues are (1) legality, (2) emotional ‘ick’ factor, (3) risk of children with birth defects due to homozygous alleles.
For the third issue, I think a marriage closer than 1st cousins is a very bad idea; more distant than 1st cousins is OK. Marriage between first cousins is marginal — there’s an increased risk of birth defects, but life is so full of risks that modest risks are lost in the noise.
First cousins are the closest possible cousins, you know. So based on the OP, you believe that all cousin relationships are fine.
One of those “things I realized about a creative work” is that the exciting denouement of “The Importance of Being Earnest” is that the newly discovered Ernest Moncrieff has earned his aunt’s approval to marry - his first cousin.
I find my post was incomplete and therefore inaccurate, because I didn’t read the entire OP the first time. What about a double first cousin, as defined in the OP? That is, where the cousins share four grandparents (the parents of one cousin are full brothers/sisters to the parents of the other); admittedly rare but it does happen. Is that icky too?
My position is that the only things really immoral about close-relation sex are: if one of the pair are under the age of consent; if there is an imbalance of power, as is usually the case between parents and children, for example; or if one of the pair is aware of the close relationship and the other one isn’t, as with a long-lost sibling. What I do not find immoral is the mere fact of having sex with a close relative, whether it is recreational or serious. This is leaving aside the issue of possible children, which is another issue altogether.
I find as I get older I get my knickers in a twist very little about other peoples’ recreational activities, so long as they are not harming someone else against their will. I like to think of that as the accumulated wisdom of experience. You may, of course, think of it in some other way.
I only have 6 first cousins and two of them have always been unusually attractive to anyone with eyes.We are talking magazine cover level. One of them let me live with her for a couple of weeks in Florida when I needed it most and we are very close. I would be thrilled if I could find someone just like her but there is no way I could ever hit on someone that is like the little sister I never had.
Second cousins are right out as well.I have a couple of really attractive ones of those as well and my family isn’t very big. Older members of the family would freak out if that happened. I am perfectly capabe of thinking someone is objectively beautiful without wanting to have a sexual relationship with them.
I think I would have to go out to 4th or 5th cousins before it wouldn’t be considered an issue and I am sure someone would still comment on it if they found out.
Several of my cousins on both sides of the family were considered to be quite hot in their prime. And while I can see it objectively, when I look at them and see my mother in their faces (or even worse, my father :eek:)it pretty much kills any latent lust I might have.
