Why you should not marry your cousin?

Why you should not marry your cousin? Doctors are often looked up to, and it is common for people to ask for advice, suggestions and treatment. As a medical student, I have come across questions and situations that have alarmed me, however, I have never been overwhelmed. The story I heard on a flight from Lahore to Karachi particularly struck me. It concerned a woman’s struggle to bear children, a seemingly ordinary ordeal, magnified by the fact that she was married to her first cousin. I was sitting comfortably in an aisle seat when a man came by asking to exchange seats as he was sitting next to a lady who would prefer a woman. Since it didn’t make much of a difference to me, I volunteered to to exchange seats with the man. This is how I ended up sitting beside Leena* who was married to her cousin. We got to talking, and when she found out I was studying medicine she told me about herself. She was on her way to consult a geneticist at Aga Khan University Hospital. The trials and tribulations Leena* had while trying to conceive and give birth to a healthy baby brought tears to my eyes. She had suffered a miscarriage, two still-born babies, and poly-cystic ovarian disease, yet she was still hopeful that she’d be a mother soon.