I remember seeing Panorama or something, maybe Cutting Edge? One of those kinds of programmes.
It was about genetic defects which are on the rise apparently in Asian communities due to some of them marrying first cousins - they had a case study of a family where mum and dad were first cousins and their three children all had crippling genetic defects.
What shocked me was that once they'd had one which had such terrible disabilities (I think they were deaf and blind as well as being impaired physically as well), they went on and had two more, who were just as badly disabled.
From BBC website:
"It is estimated that at least 55% of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins and the tradition is also common among some other South Asian communities and in some Middle Eastern countries.
But there is a problem: marrying someone who is themselves a close family member carries a risk for children - a risk that lies within the code of life; within our genes.
Communities that practice cousin marriage experience higher levels of some very rare but very serious illnesses - illnesses known as recessive genetic disorders."
Recessive genetic disorders are caused by variant genes. There are hundreds of different recessive genetic disorders, many associated with severe disability and sometimes early death, and each caused by a different variant gene.
We all have two copies of every gene. If you inherit one variant gene you will not fall ill.
If, however, a child inherits a copy of the same variant gene from each of its parents it will develop one of these illnesses.
The variant genes that cause genetic illness tend to be very rare. In the general population the likelihood of a couple having the same variant gene is a hundred to one.
In cousin marriages, if one partner has a variant gene the risk that the other has it too is far higher - more like one in eight.
