| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Israel-Palestine | |
| Consanguinity and Birth Defects among Arabs in Jerusalem | |
| 2004-07-24 | |
| From Clinical Genetics, an article by R. Bromiker, et al. (Link found at Gene Expression.) The aim of this work was to determine the impact of parental consanguinity on congenital malformations in a mixed urban and rural Arab community in Jerusalem, Israel. ... Of 561 infants, 253 (45%) were born to consanguineous couples. The incidence of major congenital malformations in the offspring was 8.7, 7.1 and 2.6% in cases of first cousins, all consanguineous, and non-consanguineous couples, respectively. ... Parental consanguinity was also associated with an increased incidence of death in previous siblings ... Consanguineous marriages have been described as an important factor contributing to an increased occurrence of congenital malformations and subsequent morbidity and mortality among the offspring. With in the general population, the incidence of congenital malformations spans a wide range. With few exceptions, the frequency of major malformations reported in western countries ranges between 1.0 and 2.4%. By contrast, the risk for congenital malformations in the offspring of marriages between first cousins has been reported to range between 2.9 and 8.0%. ... The increased incidence of genetic abnormalities in the offspring of consanguineous couples most likely arises from the homozygous expression of recessive genes inherited from their common ancestors. The incidence of major malformations found in the current study in the offspring of first cousins (8.7%) was more than three times higher than that in the newborns of unrelated parents (2.6%). This incidence is higher than that generally reported in the western literature; however, in other publications from the Middle East, an even higher ncidence was reported. ...
| |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #3 One must always marry outside of the clan. A suspicious and withdrawn race like the Scots figured this out exactly how many centuries ago? The drawbacks of maintaining an insular culture are finally coming back to haunt Arab society. It is difficult to wish so much suffering upon innocent children, but parents who have knowingly wed their own first cousins deserve nothing better. It is cold comfort to think that immense amounts of medical resources in such an undeveloped region will be diverted to the care and feeding of so many crippled offspring. However, these sort of albatrosses are most deservingly strung around Arab society's collective neck. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-07-24 8:34:09 PM |
| #2 Nice, just the image I needed. Arab men beating on and raping their first cousins. Just the thought makes my blood boil. Sure, the article doesn't mention beatings or rape, but we all know at least some do so behind closed doors. |
| Posted by: Charles 2004-07-24 11:01:08 AM |
| #1 Jeesh Mike - please use the big fat crayons when leading the class this early - :) Consanguineous - (Merriam Webster) - of the same blood, specificlly, descended from the same ancestor. |
| Posted by: Doc8404 2004-07-24 10:05:17 AM |