Cousins could Go To Prison For Expecting Son

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Michael Lee and Angela Peang, a Utah couple, fell in love, got married, and are now expecting their first child together. All normal if it were not because the news of their next paternity puts them at risk of going to jail for a maximum of five years and paying a fine of $ 10,000, according to local media.

The problem is that Lee and Peang, both 38 years old and expecting to be the parents of a boy in May, are first cousins and Utah state law prohibits sexual relations between such relatives. In fact, the couple had to get married in Colorado because the legislation also excludes marriage between first cousins, unless they have not turned 65.

Last year, the couple launched an online petition and collected signatures to change the legislation, already repealed in numerous other states in the country.

"My cousin and I have been in love with each other our entire lives, but we are prohibited from marrying in the Utah state where we live," Angela wrote in the petition. "We believe that the law is outdated and needs to be changed so that we can socially legitimize our love."

The two appeared in one of the episodes of WeTV's Extreme Love show, visibly moved by the expectation of their son and showed a sonogram of the creature that, they assure, will be born without physical deformities.

In an interview with the New York Post, they said they did genetic testing that ruled out any impediment to parenting.

The newspaper quotes a study from Columbia University in which the probability that a child of a cousin is born with deformities is 7% to 4%, while in those without parentage it is 4% to 3%.

Peang's father is the eldest of 12 children and one of his sisters is Lee's mother.