1st cousins will always be icky to me, but 2nd cousins are no big deal. I just can't imagine my kid marrying my sister's kid.

"...but second cousins are no big deal"????? I'm just gonna leave that one alone.

It seems really strange to me since I'm close with my cousins...but it's been happening for ages.

It made me think of Pride and Prejudice when they are trying to marry off Elizabeth to her cousin Mr. Collins. I think that was so her family's land would stay in the family since women couldnt own property...and all they had were daughters.

You'd be OK with your great-grandchildren marrying each other?

Ever see that movie called Deliverance? Some guys on vacation get killed and tortured by a bunch of hillbillies that had too many cousins that got together in back country somewhere. There's a reason why mother nature prefers a wider gene splice.

""...but second cousins are no big deal"????? I'm just gonna leave that one alone. "

A second cousin is your grandparent's sibling's grandchild. That relationship is so distant that I am sure there are many many people who have been in a relationship with a second cousin and have no idea.

"You'd be OK with your great-grandchildren marrying each other?"

It wouldn't be my preference, but I don't think it should be illegal. Do you think it would be wrong for your great-great grandchildren to get married? Great-great-great grandchildren? We all share common ancestry at some point.

I thought genetics was only a problem when you marry into the family for generations and generations, like European royalty (and, um, back country hillbillies?). I don't think this is the case so much.

I couldn't marry a cousin. They're family, it'd be like marrying my brother. That's too close. I have gone out with a cousin's cousin. I had questioned the acceptableness of it, but it doesn't matter now.

Sexual taboos are for the most part socially constructed. I think we can all accept that. But I think there are some very good reasons for maintaining those social constructions.

In terms of cousins, I think that it's a really healthy thing to be around extended family members who are not potential romantic/sexual partners. Having certain people "off limits" allows us to form bonds with peers in a way that may not be possible for people we'd potentially want to date or who would want to date us.

It goes back to "When Harry Met Sally," where they discuss whether a man and a woman can be friends without one of them harboring romantic feelings for the other -- this is what cousins are for!!!!

Yes, and grandchildren are pretty close to being great-grandchildren and grandchildren are pretty close to being siblings.

I'm saying that if the relation is so close that it is quite possible for your great-grandparent or great-great-grandparent to be alive when you get married, it's wrong. Most people don't have great-great-great grandparents so that isn't as wrong. No one should live to see that.

4/5? I guess I know my perversions. I'm sorry; but, knowingly marrying a cousin is too taboo for me.

Uh... I'm not sure how I feel about this. They'd have to be very distant relatives before I'd be comfortable with the idea of them...ahem... copulating.

When I saw this, I was instantly reminded of the time I sat behind this guy in my social psych class who went on an on about how attracted he was to his cousin and how he'd definitely "do her" if she wasn't already his cousin. I thought he was a creep before- but I definitely do now!! I'm sure he'd love this article.

Whatever, what a sad race we have become.

dikke kus.. .. um.. movies aren't real life.

Umm I'm very close to my second cousins, my great aunts and uncles are all still alive and the family gets together for all kinds of gatherings. So to me it would be weeeeeeird. We are related! Some of us share a last name....

What's a half cousin?

OK, I looked it up on wikipedia. That is just confusing. I'm glad I don't half *quite* such a confusing family.

*have, not half!

this test was really disturbing.

yea...sorry, my cousins and i are so close we're like brothers and sisters, i couldn't imagine for one second being sexually involved with one of them. i think i'd have to be drugged first. there are so many people on earth, why can't you leave your family members alone?

For those who want to know what a "half-cousin" is - Here's the answer:
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It's similar to "half-siblings" thing. Divorced parents have kid(s) & one or both remarry & the "new" spouse brings kid(s) INTO the marriage, they're STEP-siblings - But if the spouses HAVE kid(s) TOGETHER they're "HALF-siblings" (of the same blood). The same applies to cousins: only they're the kids of your father/mother's brother/sister who have kids... the whole first, second, third, etc. cousin thing.
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I'm still trying to wrap my head around how an aunt/uncle can be born AFTER a niece/nephew... Apparently, it's true! Genealogists say so. But I tend to shy away from stuff like that - Gives me migraines! And the less I get of those, the better.

rossy - it is true that an aunt/uncle can be born after a niece/nephew - its bizarre but my moms dad remarried when she was 18 and had 3 daughters, but the youngest one was born after one of my cousins making my cousin older than his own aunt!! its only by a year or so...but thats how it can happen!

I worked with a girl who was pregnant around the same time her mother was having another child. So her little sister is the same age as her daughter... so the aunt is the same age as the niece.

I'm pretty close with my 2nd cousins, so that would still be pretty icky to me

second cousins are TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
i don't care what anyone says
and even third and fourth, if you KNOW, is creepy

I'm very close to my cousins they are like my extended brothers and sisters. We all grew up together. I can't imagine being okay with marrying one of them.

Whether it's my second cousin or third cousin it makes no difference.It's way too close for comfort for me.

Arrested development anyone?

You can't touch your cousin!

This reminds me of a Geography class I had once. We were given an assignment to trace our family trees. It turns out I was sitting next to a girl who's grandmother was my grandmother's sister. (Her dad was my mom's cousin). It was a bizarre coincidence that we had ended up in the same city...

Just goes to show you that you could be related to almost anyone, even distantly!

Cousins... waaaaaaaaay too close for comfort in my book. My cousins feel like siblings to me. I do know of one couple who are first cousins. They do not have children together, nor will they ever. It gives me the heebie-jeebies, but I guess whatever floats the boat of two consenting adults?

Wow, it was very interesting to read a lot of different opinions about this matter. I'm in a relationship with a step cousin, I met my actually cousin (his step Dad) when I was 19 and his son was 20.so we really never felt like family,. We fall in love even though still is kind of weird when he calls Grandma to my Aunt. The beginning of our relationship was really hard for us and the rest of the family.. But now they accept us since there is no blood related.. So basically ALL IN FAMILY.. We are aware that may be complicated to explain to our kids, but we aren't worry about it since they will be healthy, I hope you all thing that in my case there is nothing wrong.

Uh, I probably shouldn't admit this, but my Grandparents are second cousins. They came from a Mennonite family, and I guess it wasn't a big deal back then (and probably still isn't in that community). My dad, Aunts and Uncles have all their fingers and toes (though my dad is a little hard of hearing, but I suspect that has more to do with working in a lumber mill for 30+ years!)

Given that, I stil think it's pretty gross! I couldn't imagine being with one of my cousins.

Diosa, I think its different since there is no blood relation. If you were related by blood it would be weird (my own opinion though).

We only saw our cousins at family weddings, funerals, anniversary parties or other similar events. All of my aunts and uncles have big families of 6 or more kids like we did, so yearly holidays weren't typically spent together--we did our own immediate family thing and so did each of their families.

Since we didn't see them that often and they weren't a part of our Thanksgiving/Christmas, perhaps while growing up I wasn't fully aware of how close we were actually related...so I will admit I develop a bit of a brief schoolgirl crush on one of my first cousins. I think I was 7 or 8 at the time and he was 13 or 14. Hee! Needless to say, I am still tortured, shamed and teased mercilessly about it by the rest of my family even today.

So genetics goes like this.
You are only ever related 100% to your identical twin (if you have one) and yourself.
You are related 50% to your parents and siblings, because you got half of each of your parent's genes, and so did your siblings.
You are related 25% to your grandparents and cousins, since your parents only have half of your grandparents' genes, and they were only related by half to your aunts/uncles who then had your cousins.
By the time you get out to second cousins (using the grandparent's sibling's grandkid definition) and do all the math, you're only 6.25% related to the person.

So, really, second cousins marrying isn't the end of the world. They will probably have perfectly healthy kids, no problem.
And great-grandkids of a single person (as long as they aren't first cousins) should be fine too.
It still has a little bit of a squick factor though.

Like many here, I'm squeamish over cousins dating. In my opinion, there are plenty of other people to date without dipping into the family (gene) pool.