Posted on 11/24/2006 9:24:43 AM PST by AdmSmith
Available data suggest that genetic and congenital disorders are more common in Arab countries than in industrialised countries; recessively inherited disorders account for a substantial proportion of physical and mental handicap. Several factors may contribute to the high prevalence of genetically determined disorders:
High consanguinity rates 25-60% of all marriages are consanguineous, and the rate of first cousin marriages is high. In addition, isolated subpopulations with a high level of inbreeding exist. Furthermore, in many parts of the Arab world the society is still tribal. This has made the epidemiology of genetic disorders complicated, as many families and tribal groups are descended from a limited number of ancestors and some conditions are confined to specific villages, families, and tribal groups, leading to an unusual burden of genetic diseases in these communities (table B on bmj.com)
The high prevalence of haemoglobinopathies, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, autosomal recessive syndromes, and several metabolic disorders (fig A and table C on bmj.com)
The rate of children with Down's syndrome in some Arab countries exceeds the 1.2-1.7 per 1000 typical for industrialised countries. This may be related to the relatively high proportion of births to older mothers in the region (up to 50% of children with Down's syndrome in the region are estimated to be born to mothers aged 40 or over)
The lack of public health measures directed at the prevention of congenital and genetic disorders, with inadequate health care before and during pregnancy, particularly in low income countries
Services for the prevention and control of genetic disorders are restricted by certain cultural, legal, and religious limitations, such as the cultural fear of families with genetic diseases being stigmatised within their community and the legal restrictions on selective termination of pregnancy of an affected fetus.
(Excerpt) Read more at bmj.com ...
One word: Incest.
Too Funny, but we knew this from their behaviour.
Inbreeding
Oh, I can hardly wait for the kickback on this piece of research! It might be advisable for this scientist to invest in some personal security. Any cartoonists out there?
Wow, that chart is amazing.
Cletus Akhbar!
LOL
Those big black tents, and social restrictions preventing men from seeing or speaking to their prospective wives before marriage, can conceal some major physical and mental defects that would make a woman unmarriageable and largely undateable in any normal society.
As long as the young and promising of thier culture keep stepping up to win Darwin Awards, we can expect the trend to continue...
If I'd know how to do it at the time...
I should have saved a copy/screen-shot of the Palestinian Authority's
own web-page that discussed the in-freakin-credibley high levels of
cousin marriage in the PA areas.
Sounds much more retrograde than even the old stereotypes about
inbreeding in places like Oklahoma (my home state), Arkansas and
other southern states.
and ... of course .... once the lights are out ........
And don't forget that you also have second cousins marriages...
Consanguinity is the quality of being descended from the same ancestor as another person.
The degree of relative consanguinity can be illustrated with a consanguinity table, in which each level of lineal consanguinity (i.e., generation) appears as a row, and individuals with a collaterally-consanguinious relationship share the same row.
The connotations of degree of consanguinity varies by context (e.g., Canon law, Roman law, et al.). Most cultures define a degree of consanguinity below which sexual interrelationships are regarded as incestuous (the "prohibited degree of kinship"). In the Catholic Church, unwittingly marrying a closely-consanguinious blood relative is grounds for an annulment, but dispensations were granted, actually almost routinely (the Catholic Church's ban on marriage within the fourth degree of relationship (third cousins) lasted from 1550 to 1917; before that, the prohibition was to marriages between as much as seventh degree of kinship).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consanguinity
Have read somewhere that almost 50% of the marriages among Iraqis involved cousins (first, second, third, ect) that were arranged by their families, I'm sure this is one factor that contributes to them having a much higher degree of tribalism, sectarian strife, and the like over there compared to the West and elsewhere where it is rare.
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