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Roman civil law prohibited marriages within four degrees of consanguinity. [3] This was calculated by counting up from one prospective partner to the common ancestor, then down to the other prospective partner. [4] The first prohibited degree of consanguinity was a parent-child relationship while a second degree would be a sibling relationship.
The degree of kinship between two people may give rise to several legal issues. Some laws prohibit sexual relations between closely related people, referred to as incestuous. Laws may also bar marriage between closely related people, which are almost universally prohibited to the second degree of consanguinity.
The Christian emperors modified the rules from time to time and extended the civil law impediment to the first degree of collateral affinity. The church extended the impediment to relationships created by illicit intercourse. The Council of Elvira (c. 300), prohibited the marriage of a widower with his deceased wife's sister. [8]
Incest is sexual intercourse between individuals related in certain prohibited degrees of kinship. In every society there are rules prohibiting incestuous unions, both as to sexual intercourse and recognized marriage. The two prohibitions do not necessarily coincide. There is no uniformity as to which degrees are involved in the prohibitions.
Existing legislation states the prohibited degrees of relationship for marriage include those to a sibling, parent or child, but not marriages between first cousins.
It also lays out rules and regulations with regard to prohibited degree of kinship. These prohibitions are found predominantly in Leviticus 18:7–18 and 20:11–21 , but also in Deuteronomy .
More commonly, they are known as in-laws or family-in-law, with affinity being usually signified by adding "-in-law" to a degree of kinship. This is standard for the closest degrees of kinship, such as parent-in-law , child-in-law , sibling-in-law , etc., but is frequently omitted in the case of more extended relations.
Most laws regarding prohibited degree of kinship concern relations of r = 25% or higher, while most permit unions of individuals with r = 12.5% or lower. In 24 states of the United States, cousin marriages are prohibited. Also, most laws make no provision for the rare case of marriage between double first cousins.