Rise in marriages between cousins ‘is putting children’s health at risk’

I'm not an 'arranged marriage' advocate, but I think this may be a little OTT, Lady D:

Lady Deech, who chaired the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for eight years, will also suggest that married first cousins use in vitro fertilisation so that embryos can be tested for recessive diseases.

See the UK Times Online article about Lady Deech's campaign to "deter the practice of marriage between first cousins" here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article7069255.ece

Talk about controversial. In my Grad Dip of Genetic Counselling, I was always taught that the idea that marrying your first cousin would produce a baby with three heads was a lot overrated. And that in fact consanguineous marriages only had a slightly increased chance of producing a baby with a birth defect over the general population i.e. 6% affected births as opposed to 3-4% in the general population. This is because many recessive genetic conditions are exceedingly rare in the first place. When you put it like that, 3-4 vs 6, it doesn't seem like much, does it? Just goes to show the power (and tyranny) of statistics in furthering (and ?twisting) an argument.

Afterthought: Risk perception is very subjective. Non-directive genetic counselling is practically difficult.