The dangers of consanguineous marriage

In ancient China, many families practiced close relative marriage. They believed that close relative marriage could maintain family relationships. Of course, close relative marriage also existed in foreign countries in the past. However, with the development of science and technology and the improvement of medical standards, people gradually discovered that the harm of close relative marriage is still very great. Among them, the offspring are the most directly affected. A common problem for offspring is that they are born with various diseases.

Generally, offspring born from marriages between close relatives will have various physical problems. This is mainly because there are problems with the genetic genes of children born from close relatives, and the possibility of completely curing diseases caused by genetics is generally not very high.

Close relatives will increase the incidence of genetic diseases in their offspring because biological inheritance is accomplished through the transmission of information through genes. Genes are the material basis of heredity and are passed on to offspring through germ cells, allowing the characteristics of parents to be expressed in their offspring. There is a 1/2 chance that each child has the same genes as his or her parents; there is a 1/2 chance that all siblings have the same genes; there is a 1/4 chance that grandparents, uncles and nephews, uncles and nephews, etc. have the same genes; and there is a 1/8 chance that cousins, etc. have the same genes. In some hereditary diseases, the disease-causing gene is recessive. If one of the partners carries the gene and the other does not, the disease-causing gene can be masked and the offspring will not develop the disease.

Only when both spouses carry this recessive gene will their offspring become ill. Therefore, consanguineous marriage increases the chance of developing recessive genetic diseases, such as albinism, congenital deaf-muteness, cerebellar malformation, phenylketonuria, galactosemia, etc.; it can also increase the incidence of multi-gene genetic diseases, the common ones are hydrocephalus, spina bifida, anencephaly, schizophrenia, congenital heart disease, epilepsy, etc.

The harm of consanguineous marriage is still very great, so now the marriage law directly stipulates that consanguineous relatives cannot marry. This is mainly to improve the quality of future generations and advocate eugenics. If you want your children to be born smarter, it is best for the couple's homes to be farther away from each other, so that you can ensure that both parties are not close relatives.