DAVID MARCUS: UK's promotion of first-cousin marriage at odds with Western culture

Prime Minister Keir Starmer blocked a U.K. vote to ban first-cousin marriage as the National Health Service released guidance citing potential benefits despite medical concerns.

David Marcus is a columnist living in West Virginia and the author of "Charade: The COVID Lies That Crushed A Nation."

After acknowledging that children who are the product of first-cousin marriage are indeed substantially more likely to suffer genetic defects, the official guidance to midwives went on to say those concerns "must also be balanced against the potential benefits."   

Listed among these benefits are "collective social capital" as well as "financial and social security at the individual, family and wider kinship levels." Finally, there was a government note claiming that critics have placed an "unwarranted, narrow focus on close-relative marriage."