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 M¢50  Funded By Mahalo ? |  September 04, 2009 05:33 AM

Children of cousins are more liable to get genetic defects- is this true?

i read somewhere that Children of cousins are more liable to get genetic defects than the children of unrelated men and woman . is this true?
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psycgirl psycgirl
 
 September 04, 2009 05:44 AM
It's not always the case that there will be defects. Here is a link to an article on this very issue. It is interesting because it talks about how America is the only place to really ban marriages of first cousins but in other countries this is not as frowned upon. Interesting issue!

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2564/whats-wrong-with-cousins-marrying

"First-cousin marriage isn't a surefire recipe for congenital defects. True, marriage among close kin can increase the chance of pathological recessive genes meeting up in some unlucky individual, with dire consequences. The problem isn't cousin marriage per se, however, but rather how many such genes are floating around in the family pool. If the pool's pretty clean, the likelihood of genetic defects resulting from cousin marriage is low. A recent review (Bennett et al, Journal of Genetic Counseling, 2002) says that, on average, offspring of first-cousin unions have a 2 to 3 percent greater risk of birth defects than the general population, and a little over 4 percent greater risk of early death. While those margins aren't trivial, genetic testing and counseling can minimize the danger. An argument can be made that marriages of first cousins descended from strong stock can produce exceptional children. Charles Darwin, for example, married his first cousin Emma, which wasn't at all unusual in their prominent and successful family--their common grandparents were cousins too. Three of Charles and Emma's ten kids died in childhood, it's true, but that was standard for Victorian England; the others went on to productive and in some cases distinguished careers."

Other links

http://www.chowrangi.com/cousin-marriages-defective-children.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-514911/Tragedy-children-born-genetic-defects-parents-cousins.html

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,23792218-2761,00.html
Source(s):
Other links

http://www.chowrangi.com/cousin-marriages-defective-children.html

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2564/whats-wrong-with-cousins-marr...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-514911/Tragedy-children-born-geneti...

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,23792218-2761,00.html



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chefjoanna chefjoanna
 
September 04, 2009 05:37 AM
it can be true... not necessarily, but it's a possibility.

What happens is that two recessive traits that are present in a family tree can be present in the offspring of cousins. Sometimes those recessive genes can be disease carriers.

This is the explanation of why there's a trend for hemophilia in the Royal Family of Great Britain.

(I <3 science! Mendel rocks!)

Tags: recessive, cousins, genes, genetics, disease

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albanian albanian
 
September 04, 2009 07:21 AM
You ask "more liable" which is true. That doesn't mean the same as "always", it just means some percentage more likely. Any degree of relationship is more likely than any more distant relationship. On the other hand, even the maximum distance in relationship has some small chance of defects, while even the most incestuous relationship will not always produce defects.

The reason for this is that most defects are caused by recessive genes. Recessive genes only show their effects when both parents have contributed their copy to the offspring. The closer two people's relationship the more likely that they will both have the same recessive gene. But the human genome is huge, so it all becomes a matter of luck, good or bad, how it turns out. But the odds change.

Some genetic birth defects are not recessive but dominant, and others are carried in the mother's mitochondrial DNA. In both of those cases relationship does not matter.

Overall, the closer the relationship the more likely the problem; there is no magic distance which is safe or distance which is dangerous.
Source(s):
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/medicine/assist.shtml
and basic biology


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