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Here is the deal, I just met my 2nd cousin for the first time (in my memory) because her extended family came to see my extended family. I thought she was very attractive but fear the social stigma around getting together with my 2nd cousin. Problem is they live in a different state. I donno what to do. Should I just try to get over her?
only if your name is cletus and you only wear overalls and live in alabama and watch nascar... then it would be normal
Dating a second cousin is probably more of a social stigma/weird issue than the possibility of birth defects cause you didn't say you were going to necessarily mate with her( and the chances are small even then for a birth defect). My honest opinion is there are literally millions of women in the world you could potentially date so unless you can deal with the majority of people immediately saying "eeew!" Id just leave her alone.
btw you didn't say if the feeling was mutual, its possible she would think the idea was creepy herself.
Thank you all so far. I did look up the birth defect stuff, it isn't too bad.
Dude, I had a solid two years during my childhood when I wanted to date my FIRST cousin. Its normal.
As long as you're not having babies, there's no problem with birth defects. Adopting and getting a surrogate mother/sperm donor are two good options. But if you have your own child, make sure you're financially ready to deal with any defects it may end up with, and take care of it no matter what. Period.
Unless you're same sex and then rly there is no issue at all
I'm not sure I agree with the thrust of the comments so far. FIRST-cousins have a small but noticeable increase in birth defects, but I can't find much info on second cousins. Presumably though, since they are only 1/4 as related the risk would be errr... I'm tempted to say 1/4 as bad, but I kind of think it's even less than that, I don't quite remember how it works. Anyway even if it's only 1/4, that would put it at less than 1%.
Hmmm risk is slightly higher for birth defects but I suppose it's okay. I just find that a little odd.
2nd cousin is too close in the genetic pool. If you have children, the risk of them having birth defects will increase.