Nothing wrong medically with cousins 8216;getting married8217;

19th-century as women became more socially mobile and risks of giving birth to babies with defects became more evident.

But, an international team has carried out a study and found that the risk of giving birth to babies with genetic defects as a result of wedlocks between first cousins is no greater than that run by women over 40 who become pregnant, the 8216;Public Library of Science8217; journal reported.

8220;Women in their forties are not made to feel guilty about having babies and the same should apply to cousins who want to marry,8221; Prof Diane Paul of Massachusetts University, who led the team, said.

In fact, the risk of congenital defects is about two per cent higher than average for babies born to first-cousin marriages 8211; with the infant mortality 4.4 per cent higher 8211; which is on par with the risk to babies born to women over 40.

8220;Women over the age of 40 have a similar risk of having children with birth defects and no one is suggesting they should be prevented from reproducing,8221; 8216;The Independent8217; quoted team member Prof Hamish Spencer of University of Otago in New Zealand as saying.

The stigma attached to first-cousin marriages was supported by early studies into human genetics suggesting that 8220;recessive8221; versions of a gene are more likely to be expressed in the kids of genetically related parents, as well as more likely to be defective.