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Inbreeding within first cousins appears to have an established history of dangers, and anything closer than that relationship also.

However, how distantly related do two individuals have to be for the risks of inbreeding to be in line with having a child with an unrelated person?

Are second cousin children more likely to have children with defects? 3rd cousins? 4th?

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  • $\begingroup$ Are you talking about interbreeding or inbreeding? You are using both words. I would assume you're talking about humans, right? $\endgroup$ – Remi.b Nov 20 '17 at 18:23
  • $\begingroup$ @Remi.b yes I am talking about humans $\endgroup$ – Charlie Nov 20 '17 at 18:25
  • $\begingroup$ And I'm talking about inbreeding $\endgroup$ – Charlie Nov 20 '17 at 18:26
  • $\begingroup$ Possible duplicate of Is marriage with half-cousin's daughter more risky than marriage with others? $\endgroup$ – De Novo Mar 6 at 16:54
  • $\begingroup$ Any level of inbreeding increases the risk of genetic disorders, but one single instance is not dangerous. The issue appears when inbreeding becomes the norm and goes on and on and on. Even two siblings could have a child with only a small increase in the percentage of having a genetic disorder. Now, after 50 generations of doing that, it becomes really bad... $\endgroup$ – forest Jun 23 at 4:19

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