Aielyn
It's interesting that the Onoxiously Politically Correct left would always refer to "inbred rednecks". Rednecks were the mid western farmers, often of scots-irish stock, who would sunburn lightly on the back of their necks when toiling in the sun.
The term 'inbred' refers to a study that was conducted in the USA in the 1900s on a group of about 200 Appalachian Hillbillies who had deafness rates of about 60% due to inbreeding. The hillbillies couldn't help it: they were isolated by days of travel in the mountains. It was once a historical situation but it is no more.
The biggest inbreeders by far are muslims-arabs and pakistanis. It's not neccessity but preference for them and they have 8 times the birth defect rates.
Consanginous marriage in muslim communities is quite the norm in both the Middle East and Pakistan etc. In Auburn some 22% of children born are of related parents and this increases the major birth defect rate by a factor of 3 or more according to the Sydney Morning Herald. For minor birth defects the rate is much higher. Note the large non Muslim non consanginous community of Auburn is included in this data. (Eg pacific Islanders who are mostly Anglican or Protestant). Cousin marriage is as high as 55% in the UK Pakistani community with this 2.6% of the population now registering 30% of the UK's birth defects.
****************** This is a web site dedicated to studying consanguinity.
Definition of the term consanguineous conásanáguináeáous ('kSn-'san-`gwi-ne-?s, -'sang-) adj. Of the same blood or origin (sangine being blood); specif Descended from the same ancestor conásanáguináeáousály.
Sixth cousin marriage was banned by the Catholic Church and 8th cousin marriage by the Orthodox church. (these are effectively absurd levels). The reason they did this was to break up ethnic clans not so much to protect against inbreeding. Inbreeding was not in the nature of pre christian european culture in anycase. Other traditonal big inbreeders are Jews (niece uncle marriage is allowed)
Only 18% of chinese-australians born in Australia marry Chinese and only 6% of Indians yet 70% of Lebanese muslim marry in their ethnic group: a significant proportion of which marry a relative (nearly 50%).
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"Birth defect warning for kissing cousins By Julie Robotham, Medical Writer
"Marriages between first cousins in some migrant groups in Sydney are resulting in high rates of infant rests and an incidence of serious birth defects nearly three times that in the wider community.
Almost one in five of the 1,331 pregnant women who booked into Auburn Hospital during 1999 said they were married to a relative, according to an obstetricians' survey. Of these, more than half were married to first cousins."
"Dr de Costa also found those married to relatives were more than four times as likely as the others to have had a previous baby who died in infancy or a stillbirth. They were almost twice as likely to have had a previous miscarriage. And their children had triple the rate of major birth defects."
"Many of the disorders were genetic, and occurred because the likelihood of the child inheriting two copies of a defective gene was higher if the mother and father shared a set of grandparents."
"There should be no pressure on migrant communities to abandon first-cousin marriage, said Dr Jenkins, a co-author of the study. "Ethically that's difficult because it's a cultural practice that goes back a long, long way. If we accept them, then we should accept their cultural practice as well."
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Marriages between cousins should be banned after research showed alarming rates in defective births among Asian communities in Britain, a Labour MP said last night...."We address problems of smoking, drinking, obesity and we say it's a public health issue, therefore we have to get involved with persuading people to adopt a different lifestyle," Ban Asian marriages of cousins, says MP from the UK Telegraph "..It is estimated that more than 55 per cent of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins, resulting in an increasing rate of genetic defects and high rates of infant mortality. The likelihood of unrelated couples having the same variant genes that cause recessive disorders are estimated to be 100-1. Between first cousins, the odds increase to as much as one in eight..."
*************************************** Marriages between cousins should be banned after research showed alarming rates in defective births among Asian communities in Britain, a Labour MP said last night.
The report, commissioned by Ann Cryer, revealed that the Pakistani community accounted for 30 per cent of all births with recessive disorders, despite representing 3.4 per cent of the birth rate nationwide. "We address problems of smoking, drinking, obesity and we say it's a public health issue, therefore we have to get involved with persuading people to adopt a different lifestyle," the MP for Keighley, Bradford, told BBC2's Newsnight programme last night.
"I think this should be applied to the Asian community. They must look outside the family for husbands and wives for their young people."
It is estimated that more than 55 per cent of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins, resulting in an increasing rate of genetic defects and high rates of infant mortality. The likelihood of unrelated couples having the same variant genes that cause recessive disorders are estimated to be 100-1. Between first cousins, the odds increase to as much as one in eight.
In Bradford, more than three quarters of all Pakistani marriages are believed to be between first cousins. The city's Royal Infirmary Hospital has identified more than 140 different recessive disorders among local children, compared with the usual 20-30.
The findings were expected to be condemned by the Asian community, in which many see the tradition of marriages between first cousins as culturally fundamental.
