Consanguinity (redirected from Degrees of consanguinity)

consanguinity (kŏn'săng-gwĭn`ĭtē), state of being related by blood or descended from a common ancestor. This article focuses on legal usage of the term as it relates to the laws of marriage, descent, and inheritance; for its broader anthropological implications, see incest. Consanguinity is to be distinguished from affinity, which is the relation of a person, through marriage, to the consanguineous relatives of a spouse. Marriage between persons in lineal consanguinity (persons in the direct line of descent, such as father and daughter) and between brothers and sisters is void under common law, church law, and statute. Whether or not marriages between persons of collateral consanguinity (those having a common ancestor but not related in direct line of descent) are prohibited as incestuous depends on statutory provision and judicial interpretation. In more than half the states of the United States, marriage between first cousins is prohibited by law, and the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Eastern Church have strict rules on consanguinity as an impediment to marriage. Statutes in the United States discard affinal relationship as an impediment to marriage. Whether incestuous marriages are void or voidable in the United States depends on local statutes and their interpretation. In the law of descent and inheritance, the concept of consanguinity is most important in the area of intestate succession. Most states award the spouse of a person who dies intestate a certain share of the estate, even though there exists neither lineal nor collateral consanguinity between the spouses.

Bibliography

See B. D. Inglis, Family Law (2d ed., 2 vol., 1968–70).

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consanguinity

Kinship characterized by the sharing of common ancestors (derived from the Latin consanguineous, meaning “of common blood”). Kin are of two basic kinds: consanguineous (sharing common ancestors) and affinal (related by marriage). Today consanguinity is a genetic concept that influences the probabilities of specific combinations of characteristics, called genotypes. The probability that two consanguineous individuals will share the same traits depends upon the mode of inheritance (dominant or recessive) and the degree of penetrance or expressivity of the causative gene. Higher rates of mortality and rare diseases and disorders are more common in the offspring of consanguineous unions. While consanguineous marriages of various degrees have been practiced, all societies have incest taboos prohibiting marriage or sexual relations between certain kin.

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consanguinity [¦kän·saŋ¦gwin·əd·ē]

(genetics)

Genetic blood relationship arising from a common ancestor.

(petrology)

The genetic relationship between igneous rocks in a single petrographic province which are presumably derived from a common parent magma.

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Consanguinity 

in law, a blood relationship between people. The law links the existence, change, and cessation of rights and duties to consanguinity.

In the USSR both lineal consanguinity (for example, father-son or grandmother-granddaughter) and collateral consanguinity, where the relationships arise owing to a common forebear (for example, brother-sister or uncle-nephew), are of legal significance. Lineal consanguinity may be ascending (from the descendants to the forebears) or descending (from the forebears to the descendants). Brothers and sisters are of the whole blood if they have the same mother and father, and they are half blood if they have either the same mother (uterine siblings) or the same father (consanguinean siblings). The distinction, however, does not affect the legal relations between brothers and sisters; for example, a brother and sister may not marry regardless of whether the kinship is whole blood or half blood.

Consanguinity is expressed in degrees indicating the closeness of the blood ties between relatives. Parents and children are in the first degree, brothers and sisters in the second degree, and so on. Relations between a parent and an adopted child are legally consanguineal. The relationships between spouses are not consanguineal.

In every instance the law defines the group of persons among whom consanguinity may have legal significance. The concept of consanguinity is applied most extensively in family law. In civil law, consanguineal relationships are the basis for settling inheritance questions, and in labor law, the granting of pensions upon the loss of a breadwinner depends on consanguinity. In addition, the law prohibits closely related persons from working together in the same organization if one relative is directly subordinate or responsible to the other.

In bourgeois law consanguineal relationships are regulated primarily by inheritance law.