UK health service pulls controversial cousin marriage study citing benefits

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) has come under fire for potentially prioritizing cultural sensitivity over significant health concerns after it published a report last week questioning a major issue of public debate — should first-cousin marriages be banned?

Debate over the issue heightened earlier this year after U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would not ban the practice outright, despite known risks to future generations, as children born from first cousins are at increased risk for diseases like sickle cell disease and cystic fibrosis.

Starmer, along with members of his Labour government, has argued that education should be prioritized instead of overreaching government mandates.

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The article, which was posted to the NHS’s Genomics Education Program’s website and titled, “Should the UK government ban first-cousin marriage,” had been removed by Monday morning, and Fox News Digital could not gain direct access to the report, nor did the NHS immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s questions. 

According to U.K.-based media outlets, the article caused some uproar after it suggested there were certain “benefits” to first-cousin marriages, including “stronger extended family support systems and economic advantages,” the Telegraph reported. 

The NHS report also noted that inter-family marriages have “long been the subject of scientific discussion” due to the increased risk of inherited diseases, and that first-cousin marriages have been legal in the U.K. since the 1500s, when King Henry VIII married Catherine Howard, his ex-wife’s cousin.

First cousin marriages are also not federally banned in the U.S., where the practice is still permitted in 20 states.

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St. John Ambulance neonatal intensive care ambulances lined up at charging units outside the Royal London Hospital on May 25, 2023, in London. (Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)

The article also noted that there are risks of genetic disorders related to other external factors like alcohol use during pregnancy and smoking. The age of the…