The Weasleys' Muggle Cousin (Was Re: CHAPDISC: HBP5, An Excess of Phlegm)

[lagattalucianese]

No: HPFGUIDX 144212

> 
> Sherry now:
> 
> I don't know the laws in the UK, and come to think of it, I'm not 
sure of
> them exactly here either.  However, relatives who are only 
distantly related
> can marry.  in fact, maybe, as close as second and third cousins in 
some
> areas.  i've never considered it much, since i wouldn't be 
interested in any
> of my cousins that way, but even if Harry and Ginny were distantly 
related,
> they could still marry, I'm sure.  nice theory though.  
> 
> sherry
>
Although creationists can make the case that we're all related if you 
go back far enough (;D), I don't think kissin' cousins is generally a 
good idea. I grew up in Utah (don't run--the experience made a Born-
Again Pagan of me), and am in a position to observe what happens when 
you simmer down your gene pool a little too much; the practice of 
polygamy early on has made it increasingly difficult for home-grown 
Mormons to find other home-grown Mormons to marry that they aren't 
somehow related to. While the problem may be in part church policy on 
abortion, and while my observations are anecdotal in nature, it does 
seem to me that Utah produces a disproportionate number of babies 
with genetic birth defects. (Statistics, anyone?) Our next-door 
neighbors produced a real run; I think something like three out of 
their five kids had defective babies, and one of those had a set of 
twins with some very extreme birth defect (microcephaly, IIRC). When 
I proposed to get serious about a second cousin, my father put his 
foot down hard, not because the young man was a Mormon (he wasn't), 
but because my father was a doctor and had a better idea than most 
what could go wrong.

Given the rate at which they've been marrying their near relatives 
for the past few hundred years, I'm amazed that all the Malfoys and 
Blacks have come up with is a mild family tradition of sociopathy.

--La Gatta