The government-funded NHS monitoring board urged hospital staff to stop discouraging first cousin marriages.
This comes as a surprise, as first cousin marriages have been widely discouraged since decades due to increased risk of genetic disorders.
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 the presence of genetic disorder in a child.
It said genetic counselors should meet the couple and their relatives to advise them on how to “consider arranging future marriages outside of the family”.
NCMD further stressed that genetic counselors should meet the couple along with their relatives for appropriate explanation of how to “consider arranging future marriages outside of the family.”
The document, seen by The Times, stated: “Action at community level may help people to understand and act on [our] advice; but this is only acceptable if information is balanced, non-stigmatising and non-directive.”
Health bosses have been urged to diversify an existing probe into separate NHS guidance that states that there is an advantage in cousin marriage, to include this NCMD document.
First cousin marriage, fairly common in the British-Pakistani community, remains legal despite warnings that it is likely to cause birth defects in children.
The NCMD, based at the University of Bristol, has got over £3.5m in taxpayer funding to record and explain data on all children who die. The document was first issued in 2023.
Ministers have faced increasing calls to ban cousin marriage recently due to potential health issues for the children of blood relatives.
In 2024, Richard Holden, the shadow transport secretary, introduced proposals to ban the law.
Mr Holden told The Times: “Our NHS should stop taking the knee to damaging and oppressive cultural practices. This guidance turns basic public health into public harm.
“First cousin marriage carries far higher genetic risk, as well as damaging individual liberty and societal cohesion. Pretending otherwise helps no one, least of all the children born with avoidable conditions and those trapped in heavy-handed patriarchal power structures they can’t leave for fear of total ostracism.”
