We think this is great. No, really, absolutely super
Cousin marriage is a problem. It’s one that compounds down the generations - as is obvious, given the genetic underlying to one side of that problem. There’s also that historical issue that the banning of it* might be said to have aided that move from a clan based to a wider high trust society. But, there are always problems in this life. Not all of which have solutions, obviously enough. But rather more importantly, not all of which are worth solving. So, we’d like to have a measure, a cut off line, of which problems are not worth solving. Which is the thing we think is great here:
Hospital staff have been urged to stop discouraging first cousin marriages by a government-funded NHS monitoring board.
The National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) told NHS staff “it is unacceptable to discourage close relative marriage in a blanket way” because parents are only at a “slightly increased” risk of having a child with a genetic disorder.
So, there we have it, there is a level of risk that we don’t need to worry about. Even, that we should do nothing about because it is “slightly increased”. Which is excellent. We now have that measure, that cut off line, against which we can, erm, measure every other problem that people shriek at us about.
We do not know, ourselves and in detail, what that slightly increased risk is. But still, we have our measure. Is smoking more or less than this? We think it’s pretty clear it’s more so actions to persuade to reduce would be justified. Is vaping more or less? Well, we’d suggest it’s probably less actually. Not that we know, but given that we’ve now our measure we can go, erm, measure. The same is true of PFAs. Or fracking, or nuclear power plants, obesity, economic inequality, UPFs and bacon.
We have that declaration of a level of risk that is not worth worrying about. Excellent, so we’ve that level of risk that’s not worth worrying, nor doing anything, about. Isn’t that a grand and useful addition to the management of life? Just think of the reduction in what people can righteously shriek at us about…..
Tim Worstall
*The Church’s time of banning it out to the seventh degree might have been a bit too far, to be fair