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| Arabia | |||
| Intermarriage worries Gulf states | |||
| 2010-04-01 | |||
However, growing evidence has shown that children born to parents from the same extended family face a higher risk of developing a range of health problems. Research from 2008 shows that marriage between cousins in the US, Europe, Russia and Australia is less than one per cent. In countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, more than half of the population marry a spouse who is considered a relative. Some of these countries and a number of African and Asian countries have the world's highest rates of birth defects - up to 69 cases in every thousand people.
Khalid bin Jabor al-Thani, the chairman of Qatar's cancer society and former deputy director of its national health authority, told Al Jazeera that inter-family marriages are tolerated because they are the product of "tribal traditions". "The tolerance comes from people who used to live in very remote areas and tribes would always want to keep their blood within the family and not go outside," he said. "In Islamic religion it is always advisable to go outside the family. But since this has [been happening] for such a long time ago, and has been carried forward, it [is] one of the issues that people overlook." Been saying for years that these people are insane. Turns out they are. More than 50% of them. Stupidity is in the genes. So is psychosis. We're fighting the mentally challenged and psychotics. Not allowed to say that out loud tho'. | |||
| Posted by:Swanimote |
| #6 100 years ago the physically and mentally handicapped would often die young, before propagating. Now, not so much. |
| Posted by: tipover 2010-04-01 16:16 |
| #5 I have seen the same problems with marriage between relatives in some Alaskan rural villages. Birth defects and other problems related to this phenomenon show up more commonly in the population. With increased mobility, this is not as much an issue as it was not too many decades ago. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2010-04-01 15:40 |
| #4 |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-04-01 14:16 |
| #3 What this article claims is 0.7% of live births have visible defects. However, The Times reports that fifty-five per cent of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins and, in Bradford [an immigrant community], the figure rises to 75 per cent. One-third of children with recessive disorders are British Pakistanis, but they only account for three per cent of UK births. link And from an earlier report on the same site, This is the most likely explanation for the observation that, in some sections of the British Pakistani population, the risk of death or serious disability in children may be as high as 10 per cent. I suspect the 10% number is a bit low, given the millenia that this population has practiced close-cousin marriage -- the metaphor of a pole-like family tree I used a few days ago was deliberately chosen -- but I haven't the knowledge to back up my belief. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-04-01 13:30 |
| #2 Swanimote, I completely disagree with your comment and find it outrageous in its claim. Its way more than 50%. |
| Posted by: bigjim-CA 2010-04-01 13:00 |
| #1 An explanation for widespread craziness? Maybe. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-04-01 12:12 |