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Cousin Marriage Law In The United States

The legal status of cousin marriage varies considerably from one U.S.

state">U.S. state to another, ranging from being legal in some states to being a criminal offense in others. It is illegal or largely illegal in 31 states and legal or largely legal in 19. However, even in the states where it is legal, the practice is not widespread. (See Incidence.)

Cousin Marriage Law In The United States
Laws regarding first-cousin marriage in the States
  Legal
  Allowed with requirements
  Banned with exceptions1
  Statute bans marriage1
  Criminal offense1
1 Some states recognize marriages performed elsewhere, while other states do not.

Status and territories

Several states of the United States prohibit cousin marriage. As of February 2014, 24 U.S. states prohibit marriages between first cousins, 19 U.S. states allow marriages between first cousins, and seven U.S. states allow only some marriages between first cousins. Five states prohibit first-cousin-once-removed marriages. Some states prohibiting cousin marriage recognize cousin marriages performed in other states, but despite occasional claims that this holds true in general, laws also exist that explicitly void all foreign cousin marriages or marriages conducted by state residents out of state.[citation needed]

State by state:

State or territory First cousin marriage allowed Sexual relations or cohabitation allowed First-cousin marriages void Out-of-state marriages by state's residents void All out-of-state marriages void First-cousin-once-removed marriage allowed Half-cousin marriage allowed Adopted-cousin marriage allowed
Alabama Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Alaska Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Arizona Only if both parties are 65 or older, or one is infertile No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Arkansas No Yes Yes No No Yes Un­known Un­known
California Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Colorado Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Connecticut Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Delaware No Yes Yes Yes Un­known Yes Un­known Un­known
Florida Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Georgia Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Hawaii Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Idaho No Yes Un­known Un­known Un­known Yes Un­known Un­known
Illinois Only if both parties are 50 or older, or if one of the parties is infertile. Yes No No No Yes No Un­known
Indiana Only if both parties are 65 or older Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Iowa No Yes Yes Un­known No Yes Un­known Un­known
Kansas No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Un­known
Kentucky No No Yes Yes Un­known No No Un­known
Louisiana No Yes Yes Un­known No Yes No If judicial approval in writing is obtained
Maine Proof of genetic counseling from a genetic counselor Yes No No No Yes Un­known Yes
Maryland Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Massachusetts Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Michigan No It is a felony to engage in sexual conduct with a cousin who is mentally disabled, incapable, or incapacitated, physically helpless, or developmentally disabled due to autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, or intellectual disability Yes No No Yes Un­known Un­known
Minnesota Only certain types Yes Yes Un­known Un­known Yes No Un­known
Mississippi No No Yes Yes Un­known Yes Un­known Yes
Missouri No Yes Yes Un­known Un­known Yes Un­known Un­known
Montana No Yes Yes Un­known Un­known Yes Yes Un­known
Nebraska No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Nevada No No Yes Un­known Un­known No Yes Un­known
New Hampshire No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Un­known No
New Jersey Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
New Mexico Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
New York Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
North Carolina Yes, except in the rare case of double first cousins Yes Yes, but cannot be declared void after all of cohabitation, birth of issue, and death of one of the parties has occurred Un­known Un­known Yes Un­known Un­known
North Dakota No No Yes Yes No Yes No Un­known
Ohio No Yes No No No No Un­known Un­known
Oklahoma No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Un­known
Oregon No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Pennsylvania No Yes Yes Un­known Un­known Yes Un­known Un­known
Rhode Island Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
South Carolina Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
South Dakota No No Yes No No Yes Yes Un­known
Tennessee Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Texas No No No No No Yes No No
Utah Only if both parties are 65 or older, or both are 55 or older with a district court finding of infertility of either party No Yes Yes Yes No Un­known Un­known
Vermont Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Virginia Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Washington No Yes Yes No No No No Un­known
West Virginia No Yes Un­known Un­known Un­known Yes No Yes
Wisconsin Only if the woman is at least 55, or either is permanently sterile No No No Un­known Only if the woman is at least 55, or either is permanently sterile Yes Yes
Wyoming No Yes Yes No No Yes Un­known Yes
American Samoa Yes
District of Columbia Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Guam No
Northern Mariana Islands Un­known
Puerto Rico Yes
U.S. Virgin Islands Yes

Incidence

Data on cousin marriage in the United States are sparse. It was estimated in 1960 that 0.2% of all marriages between Roman Catholics were between first or second cousins, but no more recent nationwide studies have been performed. It is unknown what proportion of that number were first cousins, which is the group facing marriage bans.

Some studies have cast doubt on whether offspring of first cousins are at as significant of a health risk as is popularly assumed. However, professors Diane B. Paul and Hamish G. Spencer speculate that legal bans persist in part due to "the ease with which a handful of highly motivated activists — or even one individual — can be effective in the decentralized American system, especially when feelings do not run high on the other side of an issue."

History

Cousin marriage was legal in all states before the Civil War. Anthropologist Martin Ottenheimer argued that marriage prohibitions were introduced to maintain the social order, uphold religious morality, and safeguard the creation of fit offspring. Writers such as Noah Webster (1758–1843) and ministers like Philip Milledoler (1775–1852) and Joshua McIlvaine helped lay the groundwork for such viewpoints well before 1860. This led to a gradual shift in concern from affinal unions, like those between a man and his deceased wife's sister (see widow inheritance), to consanguineous unions. By the 1870s, Lewis Henry Morgan (1818–1881) was writing about "the advantages of marriages between unrelated persons" and the necessity of avoiding "the evils of consanguine marriage", avoidance of which would "increase the vigor of the stock". To many, Morgan included, cousin marriage, and more specifically parallel-cousin marriage was a remnant of a more primitive stage of human social organization. Morgan himself had married his cousin in 1853.

In 1846, Massachusetts Governor George N. Briggs appointed a commission to study mentally handicapped people (at the time termed "idiots") in the state. This study implicated cousin marriage as responsible for idiocy. Within the next two decades, numerous reports (e.g., one from the Kentucky Deaf and Dumb Asylum) appeared with similar conclusions: that cousin marriage sometimes resulted in deafness, blindness, and idiocy. Perhaps most important was the report of physician Samuel Merrifield Bemiss for the American Medical Association, which concluded cousin inbreeding leads to the "physical and mental deprivation of the offspring". Despite being contradicted by other studies like those of George Darwin (himself the result of a cousin marriage) and Alan Huth in England and Robert Newman in New York, the report's conclusions were widely accepted.

These developments led to thirteen states and territories passing cousin marriage prohibitions by the 1880s. Though contemporaneous, the eugenics movement did not play much of a direct role in the bans. George Louis Arner in 1908 considered the ban a clumsy and ineffective method of eugenics, which he thought would eventually be replaced by more refined techniques. By the 1920s, the number of states banning cousin marriage had doubled. Since that time, Kentucky (1943) and Texas have banned first-cousin marriage and since 1985, Maine has mandated genetic counseling for marrying cousins to minimise risk to any serious health defect to their children. The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws unanimously recommended in 1970 that all such laws should be repealed, but as of 2008 no state had dropped its prohibition.

Proposed changes

A bill to repeal the ban on first-cousin marriage in Minnesota was introduced by Phyllis Kahn in 2003, but it died in committee. Republican Minority Leader Marty Seifert criticized the bill in response, saying it would "turn us into a cold Arkansas". According to the University of Minnesota's The Wake, Kahn was aware the bill had little chance of passing but introduced it anyway to draw attention to the issue. She reportedly got the idea after learning that cousin marriage is an acceptable form of marriage among some cultural groups that have a strong presence in Minnesota, namely the Hmong and Somali.

In contrast, Maryland delegates Henry B. Heller and Kumar P. Barve sponsored a bill to ban first-cousin marriages in 2000. It got further than Kahn's bill, passing the House of Delegates by 82 to 46 despite most Republicans voting no, but finally died in the state senate. In response to the 2005 marriage of Pennsylvanian first cousins Eleanor Amrhein and Donald W. Andrews Sr. in Maryland, Heller said that he might resurrect the bill because such marriages are "like playing genetic roulette".

Texas did pass a ban on first-cousin marriage the same year as Amrhein and Andrews married, evidently in reaction to the presence of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). Texas Representative Harvey Hilderbran, whose district includes the main FLDS compound, authored an amendment to a child protection statute to both discourage the FLDS from settling in Texas and to "prevent Texas from succumbing to the practices of taking child brides, incest, welfare abuse, and domestic violence". While Hilderbran stated that he would not have authored a bill solely to ban first-cousin marriage, he also said in an interview, "Cousins don't get married just like siblings don't get married. And when it happens you have a bad result. It's just not the accepted normal thing."

Some news sources then only mentioned the polygamy and child abuse provisions and ignored the cousin marriage portion of the bill, as did some more recent sources. The new statute made sex with an adult first cousin a more serious felony than with adult members of one's immediate family. However, this statute was amended in 2009; while sex with close adult family members (including first cousins) remains a felony, the more serious penalty now attaches to sex with an individual's direct ancestor or descendant.

The U.S. state of Maine allows first-cousin marriage if the couple agrees to have genetic counseling, while North Carolina allows it so long as the applicants for marriage are not rare double first cousins, meaning cousins through both parental lines. In the other 25 states permitting at least some first-cousin marriage, double cousins are not distinguished.

States have various laws regarding marriage between cousins and other close relatives, which involve factors including whether or not the parties to the marriage are half-cousins, double cousins, infertile, over 65, or whether it is a tradition prevalent in a native or ancestry culture, adoption status, in-law, whether or not genetic counselling is required, and whether it is permitted to marry a first cousin once removed.

See also

References

Tags:

Cousin Marriage Law In The United States Status and territoriesCousin Marriage Law In The United States IncidenceCousin Marriage Law In The United States HistoryCousin Marriage Law In The United States Proposed changesCousin Marriage Law In The United StatesCousin marriageU.S. state

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