Love between relatives is called. Not too closely related marriages are most beneficial for reproduction
Quite by accident I came across a question from a certain Valentina:
"Please tell me why the Russian Orthodox Church forbids marriage between cousins?
Your "answer" was:
"Marriages between cousins and sisters, of course, are forbidden by the canons of our Church and one should not transgress these limits, trusting the wisdom, experience and authority of the holy fathers.
I am a deeply religious person, but, nevertheless, I think that it is difficult to consider such an excuse as an exhaustive answer. I think it's hypocrisy clean water! Please justify why we should trust "the wisdom, experience and authority of the holy fathers", while, firstly, the Bible says: "Do not make an idol for yourself" and, secondly, there are no prohibitions in the same Bible, concerning this issue? Of course, I understand that if something is not in the Bible, then this does not mean that the Church should “taste” it. But, nevertheless, in marriages between cousins, in my opinion, there is nothing shameful, because in many countries they are not only allowed, but also welcomed (for example, Egypt). Tell me, in the end, do we believe in God, in Holy Scripture, or in the Church and authoritative Holy Fathers? And if you are referring to the wisdom and experience of people among whom, I have no doubt, you would like to see yourself, please give a complete, well-founded answer without empty phrases and clichés. Thanks in advance.
programmer
Dear George, although the tone of your letter does not imply entering into a lengthy correspondence with you, I will note the following: The presence of a close blood relationship was considered as an obstacle to marriage among all civilized peoples. So, among the Romans, marriages between persons related by blood in ascending and descending lines were unconditionally prohibited. At some times, this prohibition extended to cousins and sisters. Holy Bible through the Law of Moses forbids marriages up to the third degree of lateral consanguinity (Leviticus 18:7-17; 20:17).
In the Christian Church, marriages between persons related by blood in a straight line or close collateral lines are strictly prohibited. See Apostolic Canon 19. The Council of Trullo Fathers decreed the annulment of marriages between cousins and sisters (canon 54). The "Eclogue" of the emperors Leo the Isaurian and Constantine Copronymus also contains a ban on marriages between a second cousin and a sister, that is, those who are in the sixth degree of lateral relationship.
In Russia, on January 19, 1810, the Holy Synod issued a decree according to which marriages entered into between persons in the fourth degree of lateral kinship (here cousins with cousins) were unconditionally prohibited and subject to dissolution. Marriages between relatives in the fifth, sixth, seventh degrees could be entered into with the permission of the ruling bishop.
This practice, whether everyone likes it or not, continues in the Church today.
Hello Artem.
Legal aspects of marriages between relatives
Regardless of the motives that prompt you to be interested in such things, official marriage between brothers and sisters is impossible. The thing is this case not even in the moral and moral aspects of the issue - this remains at the discretion of the participants in such relations. Close relationship is a legal barrier to marriage at the official level.
According to regulations family code Russian Federation(Article 14) close relatives (i.e. people with close kinship) are parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, brothers and sisters. The same categories of relatives, according to the same article, are divided into full-blooded and half-blooded.
If a brother and sister have a common father and mother, then they are considered full-blooded. Incomplete brothers and sisters are those who:
- common father, but different mothers (consanguineous);
- common mother, but different fathers(single womb).
You often see the expression " stepbrother and sister", which means half-blooded or half-brother and sister. This is fundamentally wrong, because such a sister and brother are not half-brothers. Consolidated are the children of each of the spouses from previous marriages, i.e. having neither common father, no common mother. It is precisely such brother and sister that may well enter into legal marriages, and this is quite acceptable from a legislative point of view. Cousins can also enter into official relations and register their marriage at the registry office.
I draw your attention to the fact that in case of an erroneous conclusion official marriage between siblings, subsequently it is obligatory in judicial order are declared invalid.
Disorders in children from incestuous relationships
Unfortunately, there are also cases when a brother and sister do not seek to register legal relationships, but secretly from others live a sexual life and even give birth to offspring.
Incest is marriage and sexual relations between people who are related by blood. Such connections and the results of these connections lead to genetic purity, and this entails a decrease in the vitality of the organism. The fact is that combinations of genes (when they are different, and this happens if the partners are not related) enhance the ability of offspring to survive. If the genes are the same (for example, sibling and sisters), then the combinations are minimal, as well as the ability of the organism to develop normally.
Such risks are directly proportional to how closely related those who give birth to common children are. Genetic pathologies possible in the absence family ties, but the percentage of risk is incomparable. "Sick" genes in children from family ties can "doze" until such a child himself produces a descendant. If this child is also from a close relative, then the "sick" genes will definitely meet. If the descendants of children from incestuous relationships will give birth to children from those who are not related to them by family ties, then the "healthy" gene of the partner will certainly suppress the "sick" one.
Because genetics is exact science, then for the sake of justice, we can add that deviations in children from marriages of close relatives occur only in 2 cases out of 8. And the only advantage of such relationships is the transfer of good intelligence, which is not lost (for example, as the ability to hear and see), but, on the contrary , is doubled.
Sincerely, Natalia.
The second wife of Albert Einstein was his cousin Elsa Leventhal, who loved her cousin without memory and lived with him until her death, despite her husband's numerous infidelities. Charles Darwin also married his cousin, making this decision absolutely consciously and writing down all the pros and cons on a piece of paper. For centuries, marrying cousins was the norm. Yes and in modern world such alliances are not uncommon. True, today a strict judge in such amorous affairs is genetics. Scientists warn: the consequences of closely related marriages can be the most unpredictable. After all, the likelihood of having a child with genetic abnormalities increases significantly.
Photo repina-event.ulcraft.com
We have marriages with cousins and second cousins and sisters are not prohibited. By law, it is impossible to seal the union only between relatives in a direct ascending and descending line (mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, grandmothers and grandchildren, grandfathers and granddaughters), full and half brothers and sisters, as well as adoptive parents and adopted children. In Minsk registry offices, they are reluctant to talk about family marriages: they say, yes, it happens that people with the same surname come to register their relationship. It is possible, in principle, to conduct a small investigation and find out who the bride and groom are to each other, but there is little point in this - why go into personal life adults, if they do nothing forbidden? On the whole, according to the specialists of the registry offices, “cousin” marriages are rare in our country. And these alliances are concluded most often in rural areas. Sometimes in a village, most of whose inhabitants have the same last name, it is not so easy to figure out who is who and who is related. So the probability of marrying a close relative is very high ...
Einstein with his wife Elsa. Photo www.albert-einstein.ru
But in Tajikistan, the problem of related marriages was taken care of at the very high level. Since July 1, unions with cousins and second cousins \u200b\u200band are officially prohibited in the country. In addition, before registering a marriage, young people must undergo a medical examination. Why is this "twisting the screws"? In fact, the decision was made in order to save the gene pool of the nation. The thing is that marriages between relatives, especially in rural areas of Tajikistan, are widespread. For example, in the Sughd region, 385 related marriages were registered. And Tajik deputies give examples of families in which 3-4 children have various malformations. "From healthy parents deaf, blind children are born. We conducted a large-scale survey throughout the country, and the results revealed that it was the factor of related marriages that caused disability,” says MP Gulbahor Ashurova. Now the list is being made medical tests, which must be handed over before the wedding, and are also working on a mechanism for controlling couples who marry. It is assumed that violators of the new law will have to pay a fine. By the way, in the Supreme Assembly of Tajikistan, not all deputies voted for the abolition of kindred unions: after all, this is a tradition that has a long history. By the way, as in many other states professing Islam: in the countries of the Middle East, up to 60% of unions are between cousins and second cousins.
Ali Voronovich. Photo citydog.by
According to Mufti of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Belarus Ali Voronovich, in the Islamic tradition, marriages with cousins are indeed allowed, but it is desirable that there be no close relationship:
You cannot marry a mother (as well as a grandmother, great-grandmother, and so on), a daughter (as well as a granddaughter, great-granddaughter, and so on), sister, with which at least one parent is common, aunt (also grandmother's or grandfather's sister), niece. It is also impossible to marry a mother-in-law, daughter-in-law, stepdaughter and stepmother, a milk mother and a milk sister - even if a man and a woman do not have family ties, but they were fed by the same nurse, they are forbidden to marry. In Belarus, I think, there is no problem of closely related marriages. I only once saw a couple in which husband and wife appeared to each other second cousin and sister. And in Muslim countries, such a problem, I think, is typical for a society with low level education of the population. Sometimes such unions are an agreement between the parents of the bride and groom. For example, it is necessary to marry a brother and sister in order to preserve the state of the clan, prosperity, which should not go beyond the family. I think young people are married even without their will, but Islam basically forbids this, marriages without voluntary consent are not even considered marriages. Although some poorly educated people believe that such unions are a manifestation of the Islamic tradition. This is wrong.
Emma Wedgwood - Charles Darwin. Photo allinteresting.ru
Virginia Clemm - Edgar Allan Poe
COMPETENT
Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Head of the Laboratory of Human Genetics of the Republican Center for Genomic Biotechnologies of the Institute of Genetics and Cytology of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Irma Mosse:
The number of genes in all people is the same, but these genes differ in variants - in the gene one nucleotide is replaced by another. That is why some Brown eyes, others are blue, different colour skin and hair. There are also dangerous variants, which are called mutations or adverse polymorphisms. As a rule, pathological genes do not appear if they are in the singular. And if two pathological ones “meet”, then pathology will manifest itself. This also happens if a couple who are related by blood have children. They share the same unfavorable gene variants. Therefore, the more distant the marriages, the better. Now people travel a lot, move from place to place and marry representatives of other nationalities. From a genetic point of view, this is very good.
BY THE WAY
British scientists from the University of Leeds examined more than 11,300 children from the Pakistani community English city Bradford, where marriages between cousins are common. They found that the frequency of having children with birth defects was 2 times higher than average across the country (305.74 cases per 10,000 newborns versus 165.90). According to scientists, a close relationship between father and mother increased the risk of having children with congenital anomalies much more than smoking and drinking during pregnancy.
CURIOUS
They played together in the sandbox, met at family lunches and dinners, exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve, and then ... got married. At famous people who chose a mate from among relatives, family stories approximately the same. In my time marriage Franklin D. Roosevelt, Johann Sebastian Bach, Edgar Poe, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninov, Edvard Grieg concluded with cousins. Such marriages were also the norm in royal families: however, few people thought about the serious consequences of incest at that time. So it turned out that one of the most powerful European dynasties - the Habsburgs - simply degenerated. Its last representative - King of Spain Charles II the Bewitched - is the most real sacrifice genetic catastrophe. Unlike ordinary person, which has 32 different ancestors in the fifth generation, Charles had only 10 of them. The ruler had a lot of genetic abnormalities. The long lower jaw and tongue prevented him from speaking and chewing normally, the king was very tall with a disproportionate big head. He suffered from epilepsy, bone softening, scrofula, often suffered from diarrhea ... A group of researchers who studied the data of three thousand relatives of the Habsburg dynasty calculated the coefficient of inbreeding (family ties) for some of its representatives. So, for the founder of the dynasty, Philip I, this figure was 0.025. This means that 2.5% of his genes appeared due to closely related ties. And for Karl, this coefficient was an order of magnitude higher. The result, as they say, is obvious.
