one time or another. In many it has gone out of fashion namely due to modern medicine and what we now know about the risk it presents.
The problem is when it is a pattern of behavior that is repeated from generation to generation (as it is in this part of the world). Then you really ARE restricting the gene pool such that you're going to end up with kids who have problems.
There's a letter to the editor in the Gulf Times today from someone taking this lecture to task because it highlights first cousin marriages as causing genetic defects but it ignores a bunch of other things that also cause birth defects. The author of the letter feels as if Arabs and the religion are being maligned.
To him I would say the lecture was MEANT to focus on first cousins marriages, and was never intended to be a survey of ALL the different things that cause genetic defects.
Just because the Koran says you CAN marry your first cousin, it doesn't mean that you SHOULD.
"If you're looking for sympathy, you'll find it between sh*t and syphilis in the dictionary."
- David Sedaris
one time or another. In many it has gone out of fashion namely due to modern medicine and what we now know about the risk it presents.
The problem is when it is a pattern of behavior that is repeated from generation to generation (as it is in this part of the world). Then you really ARE restricting the gene pool such that you're going to end up with kids who have problems.
There's a letter to the editor in the Gulf Times today from someone taking this lecture to task because it highlights first cousin marriages as causing genetic defects but it ignores a bunch of other things that also cause birth defects. The author of the letter feels as if Arabs and the religion are being maligned.
To him I would say the lecture was MEANT to focus on first cousins marriages, and was never intended to be a survey of ALL the different things that cause genetic defects.
Just because the Koran says you CAN marry your first cousin, it doesn't mean that you SHOULD.
"If you're looking for sympathy, you'll find it between sh*t and syphilis in the dictionary."
- David Sedaris