comment copied from Chi OShea Really interesting subject, although the Daily Mail draws all the wrong conclusions again. Like, they forget the good news. Pregnancy in cousin marriage has about the genetic risks as pregnancy at 40 - not nothing, but not catastrophic either. The taboos that need dealing with are that its fine if theres decent health care and screening and preferably if the concerned people are having kids fairly young and not adding age-related risks. And as long as the cousins arent the kids of cousins, at which point the risks really multiply. The difficulty in Pakistani populations is the fact that screening during pregnancy raises the even more taboo question of terminations and screening before marriage for genetic compatibility runs the risk of ostracisation for those who would be at risk (even if its only in combination with another specific individual). But there is some really good news - the fact that theres about the same rate of cousin marriage among the British Pakistan in population in Britain and in Pakistan means that researchers can control for the other factors of socioeconomic status and access to decent heath care. In recent years many of the problems in heavily consanguinous populations put down to cousin marriage turned out to be due to poverty, clear and simple. Transfer this population to England, with the NHS and a minimum standard of living, education etc and you have the most amazing chance to study whats actually happening and come up with options that give kids and their parents the best possible lives
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 10:16:56 +0000
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