Consanguineous Marriages: Between Science and Religious Perspectives

Consanguineous marriages are commonly practised even from the early existence of humanity. Until now, consanguinity has been widely practised in many countries, including Malaysia, with variable prevalence and reasons depending on religion, culture, education, and geography. A high proportion of marriages in South and Middle East Asia are contracted between close biological relatives due to cultural preference, which is a deeply rooted social fashion among these societies. Even though consanguineous marriage has become a cultural preference in the community, the normalisation of that culture can affect and interfere with the well-being of the new generation due to health problems because of parental consanguineous marriage. Based on library research, this paper argues that consanguineous marriages should not be normalised and become a tradition or trend as they may lead to genetic diseases. It can be seen that adverse effects may be associated with the expression of genes received from a common ancestor, which may result in the mortality and morbidity of the offspring. Although Islam allows such marriages, permitting them does not mean Islam encourages them, together with the views of other religions. Besides, many countries’ opinions of consanguineous marriage are also elucidated in this paper. This paper will end with several recommendations for raising awareness pertaining to the issues raised.