Downing Street Says » First Cousin Marriages

» Monday, February 11, 2008

First Cousin Marriages

Asked if Phil Woolas had been right to bring up the subject of cousins getting married, the PMS said that Phil Woolas, as he had been making clear, was commenting in his capacity as a constituency MP and he had also been saying that he was quoted out of context.

Put that Phil Woolas had been backed today by Ann Cryer, the PMS replied that the Government’s position was that we believed these matters were best addressed locally by local members of the community and, as had already been said, Phil Woolas had spoken in his capacity as a constituency MP.

Asked if Geoff Hoon’s support was also made in the capacity of a constituency MP, the PMS said that Geoff Hoon had said yesterday that Phil Woolas had been commenting on a particular problem about first cousins marrying. What Geoff Hoon also said was that it was important that we looked at the subject in terms of scientific expertise and the extent to which it was actually causing a problem. Geoff Hoon had made clear that nobody was suggesting that this was a problem for the wider Muslim community.

Asked if the Government was looking at the scientific evidence of a particular community with a particular problem, the PMS replied that the Department of Health were responsible for issues that the Government was looking at in terms of healthcare science. It was the Government’s view that these matters were best addressed locally by the community, as well as by healthcare professionals and others.

Asked about the figures regarding genetic defects in certain communities, the PMS repeated that this was a scientific debate and something that was for scientific experts to comment on.

2 Comments »

Here is a page of an online collaborative medical textbook on the subject, triggered initially by the previous remarks about it that reached the Press.
Comment by Adrian Midgley — 14 Feb 2008 on 7:24 pm | Link
http://www.ganfyd.org/index.php?title=Consanguinity
Comment by Adrian Midgley — 14 Feb 2008 on 7:24 pm | Link

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