S-3729               _______________________________________________

                                                   SENATE BILL NO. 6300

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1990 Regular Session

By Senator Rasmussen

Read first time 1/10/90 and referred to Committee on  Law & Justice.

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.  Section 115, page 96, Laws of 1854 as last amended by section 1, chapter 189, Laws of 1927 and RCW 26.04.020 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-five 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.