S-0460.1  _______________________________________________

                         SENATE BILL 5541

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      54th Legislature     1995 Regular Session

By Senator Pelz

Read first time 01/26/95.  Referred to Committee on Law & Justice.

Permitting first cousin marriages in certain circumstances.

    AN ACT Relating to first cousin marriages; and amending RCW 26.04.020.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

    Sec. 1.  RCW 26.04.020 and 1927 c 189 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

    Marriages in the following cases are prohibited:

    (1) When either party thereto has a wife or husband living at the time of such marriage.

    (2) When the parties thereto are nearer of kin to each other than second cousins, whether of the whole or half blood computing by the rules of the civil law; except that marriage may be contracted between first cousins if the female has attained the age of fifty years or if either party, at the time of application for a marriage license, submits an affidavit signed by a physician stating that either party is permanently sterile.

    (3) It shall be unlawful for any man to marry his father's sister, mother's sister, daughter, sister, son's daughter, daughter's daughter, brother's daughter or sister's daughter; it shall be unlawful for any woman to marry her father's brother, mother's brother, son, brother, son's son, daughter's son, brother's son or sister's son.

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