In Pakistan, every 2nd marriage is between cousins

[ingemann]

I recently read this article here:

What ? Really ? That must be quite dangerous, genetically ...

Not really the risk of birth defects or heritable diseases among the children in a marriage between 1st cousins are around 4% versus 2% for unrelated couples. The risk do increase when families keep it in the family for several generation, but honestly the risk in inbreeding are quite overrated unless you're really serious in trying to transform your family tree into a family bush.

[ingemann]

Cousin marriage really isn't the sort of problem Americans think it is. It's not like we're talking about uncles marrying nieces.

Even uncle-niece marriage rarely cause defects, which is why they're in fact legal in many western countries. The argument against incest are primary based on the fact that legalising incest would lead to potntial terryfying abuses.