Birth defect risk for children of first cousins is overstated

Bittles, A.H. (2013) Birth defect risk for children of first cousins is overstated. The Conversation, 8 July .

Abstract

Research about the impact of marriage between first cousins on rates of birth defects garnered much media attention when it was published late last week.

Sadly, most of the coverage worked to alarm rather than inform and failed to mention shortcomings in the paper that suggest the effect is exaggerated.

Instead, most headlines said marriage between first cousins doubles the risk of birth defects, creating a false impression of the genetic impacts made by such unions.

Item Type:	Non-refereed Article
Journal or Publication Title:	The Conversation
Publisher:	The Conversation Media Group
Copyright:	The Author
Publishers Website:	http://theconversation.com/au
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/29908

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