Taipei: Taiwan’s Legislative Research Bureau recently issued a report analyzing the potential relaxation of kinship marriage laws, following a high-profile case in Kaohsiung where a couple’s marriage was retroactively dissolved.
According to Focus Taiwan, the debate began when a couple discovered that their grandmothers were sisters, making them second cousins and thereby violating Taiwan’s Civil Code, which prohibits marriage between people in the sixth degree of kinship or closer.
Degrees of kinship indicate the closeness of a relationship between blood relatives. Under current Taiwanese law, marriage is prohibited between collateral blood relatives within the sixth degree of kinship, such as second cousins. The Legislative Research Bureau is examining the feasibility of relaxing these laws to permit marriages within the fourth degree of kinship, such as first cousins. No legislative bills have been proposed for this change yet.
The report from the research bureau highlighted that Taiwan’s existing law, established in 1998, aimed to prevent the negative biological consequences of inbreeding. However, it noted that some countries, like Japan and Germany, have relaxed kinship marriage laws based on personal freedom. The report also pointed out that modern families are not as close-knit, and many individuals do not know their second cousins. Under current laws, same-sex couples can marry within the sixth degree of kinship due to the lack of biological risk for their children, which raises concerns about differential treatment for opposite-sex couples.
On the other hand, medical experts have expressed concerns that relaxing the laws could lead to increased birth defects and genetic conditions, impacting healthcare costs. According to a United Daily News report, Dr. Chang Chia-ming from Taipei Veterans General Hospital warned that countries allowing first-cousin marriages often provide pre-marriage education and additional prenatal screening. Without such measures, there could be a rise in preventable genetic diseases.
Taiwanese politicians have weighed in on the issue. Legislator Cheng Chia-pin of the Democratic Progressive Party cautioned against making broad changes based on a single court ruling, advocating for input from the Ministry of Justice or Judicial Yuan. Meanwhile, Wu Tseng-hsien of the Kuomintang suggested considering biotechnology to potentially relax the law, reflecting on the changed conditions since 1998. Lin Kuo-cheng of the Taiwan People’s Party echoed similar sentiments, emphasizing that societal conditions have evolved, and without legal changes, couples might choose to have children without marrying.