Marriage of cousins: Congenital diseases and people's perceptions in Pakistan, a public health challenge.

Marriage between cousins results in congenital diseases: heart disease, thalassaemia, and other disabilities in the children. Post-neonatal mortality, childhood morbidity, and haemoglobinopathies (S and E) are common in the offspring of these marriages. These parents increase the risk of low intelligence, mental instability, sickle-cell anaemia, and cystic fibrosis in the children. Researchers have studied inbreeding among Pakistani diaspora living in the West, but few studies have been conducted in Pakistan. Two perspectives emerge: