Is there any danger?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....inbreeding-risks.html

I posted this news story yesterday, but for some reason it was removed.

Because I believe this is a story that needs addressing and already Former environment minister Phil Woolas was rebuked by Downing Street in 2008, and now also Professor Steve Jones, from University College London, for raising this issue.

So this time it might be safer not to make any comments myself, but leave it to others to air their views.

[mrs_overall]

AOG I am curious - do you spend ALL your time hunting down contentious media articles?
Your blood pressure must be through the roof

[ummmm]

I answered it yesterday as well.

Cannot see a problem. There was a documentary a while back on the same subject. The dangers of inbreeding need to be highlighted.

[DTCwordfan]

How wrong this is - everybody knows that the problem lies down here in Cornwall. Redruth and Camborne have the highest number of bakeries in the United Kingdom -as they are all in-bred.

[Gromit]

Small populations which are isolated can evolve at random as genes are accidentally lost. World-wide, all populations are becoming connected and the opportunity for random change is dwindling. History is made in bed, but nowadays the beds are getting closer together. We are mixing into a glo-bal mass, and the future is brown.

[jackthehat]

Any marriages between 'close-kin' carry a slightly increased risk for the children of that union.....

Perhaps we didn't need your usual 'ethnic' slant on the story, yesterday...........or today, either ?

[Kromovaracun]

"the future is brown."

I've got a funny feeling I know exactly how this comment is going to get misinterpreted.

[ummmm]

The documentary I watched....two 1st cousins had 7 children (I think) 5 of whom had hearing and sight problems.

[mrs_overall]

In any small community you will find people with similar noses and a talent for pointing at imaginary things in the sky

[ummmm]

MrsO...You haven't read McCarthy's Bar have you?

[mrs_overall]

Yes ummmm.

You surely don't think I have any original thoughts of my own do you?????

[ummmm]

That part was very funny and always stuck in my mind.

[mrs_overall]

Snap!

[DTCwordfan]

2 astronomers from St Just , Land End, watching the Night Sky.

"Look Over there, Pasty, There's Jupiter, thats the home of Jews."

"And there's Saturn, thats the home of Satirists."

"What about Neptune?"

"That's over there on the right, that's where Nepotists reside."

"Oh and I spot Mars, They are chocoholics up there "

"Now I see Mercury, thats' the home of Heavy Metal Bands."

"Ok, what about Venus?"

"Oh the Venetian's capital is Venice"

"And now I can see Uranus."

"You sure can't. Its here in St Just, on Earth."

[ummmm]

Huh?

[mrs_overall]

lol DT

[Huderon]

Let's see now ... In this country, first cousin marriages are permitted.

Birth defects run at around 2% for the population as a whole, and at around 4% where the parents are first cousins. For things like spina bifida or cystic fibrosis the risk is about the same as for woman, not married to her cousin, who gives birth in her early 40's, and I don't see that being banned any time soon.

Infant mortality runs at 4-5% higher in the offspring of couples who are first cousins than in those who are not. Looking at it dispassionately, that can be seen as a good thing - children who die in infancy because of a genetic defect can't pass that defect on to the next generation.

My opinion ? Yes there are risks to marriage between first cousins, risks which have been known about for a very long time, but if the quotes attributed to Professor Jones are accurate and not taken out of context, he is stirring it with a very big spoon.

[anotheoldgit]

mrs_overall

Don't you concern yourself with my blood pressure Mrs, just you look after your own.

The idea of picking contentious media articles (as you put it) is to create discussion.

Makes for much more interest than 'who is having an affair with whom' and boring financial stories, or what others wish others to post on.

[mrs_overall]

Each to their own AOG

[anotheoldgit]

/// We are mixing into a glo-bal mass ///

Was that a typo mistake Gromit, did you mean to say "mess"?

[ummmm]

Huderon - it's not as simple as that. You get sets of first cousins within the same family getting married. Then their children get married to each other....do this for long enough and it's heading for disaster.

The documentary I watched was focused on Pakistanis. They said it was tradition...but it came out that it was to keep the wealth within the family.