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Why is it forbidden for men and women with direct blood relatives and collateral blood relatives within three generations to marry？
Time:2025-08-28 Views:1492
Blood relatives mainly refer to relatives who share the same ancestor and have a blood relationship, that is, natural blood relatives; This also includes blood relatives created by law, that is, relatives who have no blood relationship but are legally recognized as having equal rights and obligations as natural blood relatives, such as adoptive parents and adopted children, step parents and step children who are raised and educated by them.
Prohibiting blood relatives from marrying is a requirement of eugenics. The development of human gender relations proves that intermarriage between relatives who are too close in blood can easily pass on physiological defects to future generations, affecting family happiness and endangering national health. Marriage between clans without blood relatives can create a more physically and intellectually robust race. Therefore, the laws of various countries prohibit the marriage of blood relatives within a certain range. For example, Japanese civil law prohibits marriages between collateral blood relatives within the third degree of kinship. The Swiss Civil Code prohibits marriage between lineal relatives of noble blood and lineal relatives of inferior blood, between brothers and sisters of full or half blood, between uncles, uncles, uncles, aunts, uncles and nieces, and between aunts, aunts, aunts, aunts and nephews and nephews. There has long been a saying in China that 'men and women with the same surname cannot be born into barbarians'. Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, marriage with the same surname has been prohibited. In the Tang Dynasty, marriage with the same surname was sentenced to two years in prison. According to the laws of the Ming and Qing dynasties, those who marry with the same surname shall receive 60 lashes each and divorce. In the late Qing Dynasty, the ban on marriage with the same surname was changed to prohibit marriage with the same ancestor. The Civil Code of Taiwan prohibits the marriage of the following relatives:
(1) Direct blood relatives and direct in laws;
(2) Those with collateral blood relatives within the sixth degree of kinship, except for those with the same seniority among the fourth and sixth degree collateral blood relatives established through adoption;
(3) If the collateral relatives are within the fifth degree of kinship and have the same seniority, this restriction does not apply.
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the Marriage Law of 1950 made customary provisions on the prohibition of marriage between collateral blood relatives within five generations, in addition to prohibiting direct blood relatives, siblings, half siblings, or half siblings from marrying. The Marriage Law of 1980 not only retained the provision prohibiting direct blood relatives from marrying, but also explicitly prohibited collateral blood relatives within three generations from marrying. The revised Marriage Law has not changed the scope of prohibiting blood relatives from marrying. That is to say, there are two types of blood relatives prohibited from getting married under the Marriage Law:
(1) Direct blood relatives. Including between parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, and between grandparents and grandchildren. A father cannot marry a daughter as his wife, and a mother cannot marry a son as her husband. Grandfathers cannot marry granddaughters, and grandmothers cannot marry grandsons.
(2) Within three generations of collateral blood relatives. Including: (1) Brothers and sisters who share the same origin as their parents (including half siblings and half siblings). Children of the same parents cannot get married. (2) Uncles, uncles, aunts, and nieces of different generations. Uncle (uncle) cannot marry the daughter of a brother (younger brother); Auntie cannot marry her brother's son; Uncle cannot marry sister's daughter; Auntie cannot marry her sister's son. Sichuan Faneng Law Firm is dedicated to serving you.