They're the butt of jokes and the target of stern laws. Now a study shows cousins run few risks in mating.

Paul had taken his cousin Donna on a long trek through a remote part of Colombia. They had missed the day's meals and had only a jar of pickled vegetables and a bottle of drinks. So they repaired to hammocks strung up under the moonlight--and began a love story that has lasted 14 years and produced two chidren.

"I was shocked that I had fallen in love with my first cousin and surprised that this miracle had fallen on me," says Paul. " My only real concern was the medical issue."

Paul, a graduate student in New York City, and Donna, a financial adviser, are just two in a long, flourishing line of kissin' first cousins. Charles Darwin wed his cousin Emma and spawned 10 children, including four brilliant scientists. Albert Einstein' s second wife Elsa was his first cousin. Queen Victoria said" I do" to hers. So have millions worldwide. In parts of Saudi Arabia, 39％ of all marriages are between first cousins.

In the U.S., though, the practice bears a stigma of inbreeding just this side of incest. The taboo is not only social but legislative; 24 states ban the marriage of first cousins: five others allow it only if the couple is unable to bear children. A major reason for this ban is the belief that kids of first cousins are tragically susceptible to serious congenital illnesses.

That view may have to change. A comprehensive study published recently in the Journal of Genetic Counseling indicates such children run an only slightly higher risk of significant genetic disorders like congenital heart defects--about two percentage points above the average 3％ to 4％. Says the study's lead author, Robin Bennett, president-elect of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, which funded the study: "Aside from a thorough medical family history, there is no need to offer any genetic testing on the basis of consanguinity alone".

Publication of the study will do more than tweak public awareness; it will enlighten doctors who have urged cousin couples not to have children."Just this week," says Bennett， "I saw a 23-year-old woman who had had a tubal ligation because her parents were cousins and her doctor told her she shouldn' t have children." The study cites the case of" Amy," who had been in a relationship with her cousin for two years when, in 1996, she became pregnant. Her doctor suggested an abortion, and after a fruitless search for more information, she had the procedure. This week Amy wrote to the cousincouples.com website that she planned to get many copies of the report--"one that I will personally deliver to my ex-gynecologist."

The American proscription against cousin marriages grew in the 19th century as wilderness settlers tried to distinguish themselves from the "savage" Indians, says Martin, author of the book Forbidden Relatives: The American Myth of Cousin Marriage. "The truth is that Europeans were marrying their cousins and Native Americans were not."

And doesn' t God have stern words on the subject? Christie Smith, 37, a Nevada writer, says she felt guilty when she fell in love with her first cousin' s son Mark. "I was trying so hard to convince myself not to have these feelings," she recalls, "that I went to the Bible looking for confirmation that it was　And what I found was the exact opposite: support for cousin marriages." The patriarch Jacob married two of his first cousins, Rachel and Leah.(The Roman Catholic Church has opposed cousin marriages for more than a millennium but gives dispensation to couples considered worthy.) Smith married Mark in 1999; this year she founded a group called CUDDLE- Cousins United to Defeat Discriminating Laws through Education. wrong.

As for Paul and Donna, they are doing fine. Their son, 9, and daughter, 8, are well adjusted and academically gifted. Still, the parents are protective of their family secret. (They declined to have their real names used for this story.) " When our kids started school here," says Donna, " I told them, ' You don' t have to hide this from anyone. But you don' t need to go advertising it." The medical ban is lifted; the social stain may take longer to disappear.

他们是众人取笑的对象和法律严厉制裁的目标。现在一项研究表明近亲联姻并无妨。

保罗带领表妹唐娜出发去哥伦比亚的一个偏远地区徒步旅行。他们白天没有赶上吃正餐，现在只有一罐泡菜，一瓶饮料。无奈之下，只能在月光下搭起了吊床，双双就寝，从而开始了一个已持续14年，拥有两个子女的爱情故事。

保罗说：“我非常惊讶自己竟会爱上表妹，这一奇迹会发生在自己身上简直是不可思议。我惟一担心的是从医学角度看此事会产生的问题。”

保罗是纽约市的一名研究生，而唐娜是一名金融顾问。他们俩仅仅是无数结为夫妻的表兄妹中的一对。查尔斯·达尔文与其表妹爱玛结合，养育了10个子女，其中有四位杰出的科学家。阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦与他的第二任妻子埃尔萨是表亲。维多利亚女王曾在婚礼上对她的表哥说：“我愿意”。全世界有数以百万计说过“我愿意”的新人有血缘关系。在沙特阿拉伯，有39％的婚姻发生在有亲族关系的男女之间。

然而在美国，同宗结亲的做法仍带有近亲繁殖的耻辱，并有乱伦之嫌。这种禁忌不仅是社会习俗方面的，而且有来自立法机关的：有24个州禁止近亲结婚；其他5 个州只有在一对夫妻不育的条件下才许可。颁布此禁令的一个主要原因是人们相信近亲结婚易导致下一代不幸地患上严重的先天性疾病。

这种观点可能必须改变。最近发表在《遗传学咨询》杂志上的一份综合性研究表明近亲婚姻所生的小孩患上主要遗传性疾病如先天性心脏缺陷的可能性只比一般小孩略高--大约比平均的3％到4％高出两个百分点。全国遗传学顾问协会为此项研究提供了资金。罗宾·贝内特是此项研究的主要作者，也是该协会已当选、但尚未就职的主席。据他说，“除了需要一份详尽的家庭病史之外，没有必要仅根据有血缘关系这一条理由就进行任何的基因测试。”

此项研究的公开发表将不仅会扭转公众对这个问题的认识，它还将促使那些力劝近亲夫妻不要生育的医生摆脱偏见。贝内特说：“就在本周，我遇见一位23岁的妇女，她刚做过输卵管结扎手术。原因是她的父母属近亲结婚，她的医生告诉她不应该生育孩子。” 研究报告中还引用了有关“艾米”的例子。她曾与表兄保持了两年的婚姻关系。1996年，她怀孕了。她的医生建议流产。在四处咨询无果的情况下，她遵从了医生的建议。这一周，艾米写信给近亲夫妻网站说她打算多准备几份报告的复印本，并将亲自送一份给她从前的妇科医生。

美国人对近亲婚姻的排斥源自19世纪，原因是早期的拓荒者试图将自己同“原始的”印第安人区分开。《违禁姻亲--美国近亲结婚之谜》一书的作者马丁说：“真实的情况是欧洲人当时在近亲通婚，而印第安人却没有。”

上帝对此是否有严厉的谴责呢？一个来自内华达州的37岁作家克里斯蒂·史密斯说当她爱上表兄的儿子马克时她自感有罪。她回忆说：“我努力地说服自己不要有这种情感，所以我求助于圣经，希望证实这是错误的。但是我发现了正好相反的例证。”族长雅各布娶了他的两个表妹雷切儿和莉尔。（罗马教会1000多年以来一直反对近亲结婚，但是对于它认为是相配的姻缘却给予特许。）史密斯于1999年与马克结婚；今年她创立了一个名为“通过教育手段改变近亲婚姻歧视法”的组织。

至于保罗和唐娜，正过着美满的生活。他们9岁的儿子与8岁的女儿身心健康，学业优异。然而，作为父母，他们对自己的秘密是守口如瓶（他们要求本文隐去其真实姓名）。唐娜说：“当我们的孩子开始上学时，我告诉他们：‘你们没有必要刻意对他人隐瞒什么，但也没有必要到处去大肆宣扬。’”从医学角度讲，禁令是解除了；但要消除社会上人们对近亲姻缘的歧视还需要更长的时间。