Child born of incest?

Marriage is legal in most states for second cousins, just not between first cousins. The genetic risks aren't all that much greater for second cousins than they are for couples who aren't related by blood.

I agree with Nevada - if you research this, you'll find that the risk, depending on the degree of relationship, if smaller than most think. And we sometimes forget that there have to be specific genetic defects in the family tree (usually recessive, so they need one allele from the mother and the other from the father) for them to manifest. If there are none, they won't. That doesn't mean that something unexpected or spontaneous can't manifest, however. I've seen my fair share of kids who were born as a product of in-family relationships, mostly with couples from South East Asia and the Middle East. All the kids I saw were products of first cousin relationships. Most had complex genetic disorders that were not well understood (one family had 4 kids, all of whom were affected to some degree). That said, in 3 years of residency training, I saw maybe 5 kids, and 3 of them were in the hospital literally every month. I would do extensive research, and as aclee suggested, speaking to a genetics specialist (preferably pediatric) would be your best bet.

Agree with RavenSong. Second cousins is far enough to be considered safe genetically. I would not call it "incest" either.

I'd be more worried about the grandparents being first cousins than the fact that they are second cousins to be honest.

My great grandparents were First Cousins. Nothing that we know of was a negative result of that. Second cousins are really "far" apart in the gene poll.

I apologize if that wasn't the correct word choice. That is how this situation was explained on the information we received. The sentence said something to the effect of, "Adoptive parents should be aware of the potential issues that occur when so many incestuous relationships happen within one family." Again, if that term was incorrect or offensive, I apologize.

Thanks, everyone, for the replies. I don't think our odds are good on this particular situation, but you never know, right? :)

I would find out, if you can, if any genetic disorders run in the family. I'm really not sure what I would do. If the family is of a culture where this is the norm, then I would probably proceed. Something where there was abuse or weird things going on, I might not. We reluctantly decided against being open to a child of rape because we just didn't feel we could handle having to explain that to a child. So, in the same sense, I don't think we would accept a situation that was a product of immediate family incest or abuse.

Hi I know that this is about a month late but I wanted to throw in the "other side". I am an adoptee that was a product of rape/incest. My biological great grandfather is my father. There were 5 children born and adopted out from this horrific situation. I know a little hard to picture. While our father/mother "relationship" is a lot closer related than cousins, my health in general isn't bad. The only real downside is the inability to have children and a pituitary gland in-balance. My sister, who is of the same mother/father and was adopted with me to the same parents, is also unable to have children and is currently having trouble with blood clots, but she is going through genetic testing right now to determine if it is related to the family makeup or an injury that produced blood clots that went undetermined. Personally since it appears that there might have been some several generations of incest, you may want to just have a genetics test done just to make sure nothing serious is going on that you can take care of now instead of trying to find out 30 years down the road like my sister and I. I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in Shirley

Our family Dr is married to his second cousin and they have one son who is also a medical Dr. I don't think second cousins is considered insest.

Here's a quote from an online article about cousin marriage. "Many genetic diseases are caused by recessive genes. To get the disease, you have to get the bad gene from both parents. The greater the genetic similarity between your parents, the greater your chance of getting two copies of the bad gene."The article was neither for or against it, it just presented arguments for both sides.This presentation makes a lot of sense. I guess it just depends on how much risk we're willing to take with adoption, and what the comfort level is.

Second cousins cannot commit incest. The blood line is too far apart. It is legal for them to marry and have children. The same is true of first cousins, depending on where the family lives since laws vary from state to state. What concerns me is the father having so many children with his relatives. It sounds as though professional intervention is in order.

My brother and his wife are second cousins and have turned out 4 very intelligent and well-rounded children. I know of another couple that is the same way. However, at least in my brother's relationship, it was the first "close" marriage in the recent family history. But I would also want to check with your doctor.

Teaching - I don't know if you were doing a forum search on the topic, but I noticed that you've responded to several threads about incest this morning. Just note - all of them are quite old. This one is from 2009.

I remember taking a college class, and the professor said that it is mostly social stigma that does not allow relatives to mate, and fear is used to discourage it. The children do have a better chance of inheriting disorders/diseases, because relatives share more genes that carry the same diseases. So, the more of these bad genes, the greater chance the child inherits them. There are many diseases that require that both parents carry that specific gene. There's just a much greater chance that they're both carriers for the same disease in the case of relatives.