No, Cousins Can’t Get Married In Michigan Either
A story that has been trending in the news this week is about two first cousins in Utah who want to get married. The problem is the state of Utah has laws against it, so the two went to Colorado, where cousin marriage is legal, to tie the knot.
So what about Michigan? According to the U.S. Marriage Laws, this Utah couple would face the same problem here. Under the section titled Cousin Marriages Michigan it simply states "no".
Prohibited marriages in Michigan according to Find Law include:
Bigamous; those with syphilis or gonorrhea (felony); marriage between ancestors or descendants, brother and sister (blood or affinity), aunt and nephew, uncle and niece, first cousins
Michigan is among 24 states that ban first cousin marriage while 20 states allow it. There are six states that have various restrictions related to cousin marriages.
That taboo, obviously, comes from laws against incest and genetic concerns as people who are closely related may share genes for a variety of illnesses and developmental issues. According to researchers at Columbia University, first cousins share about 12.5 percent of their DNA. Some of the states that allow first cousins to marry have a stipulation that bans them from having offspring.