Saudi: High incidence of genetic disorders detected in babies

Arab News ^ | 20 September 2002 | Javid Hassan

[BlackVeil]

Marriage is allowed, indeed encouraged between first cousins, but not siblings, no.

Cousin marriages are common also in Mediterranean countries, and tolerated in Europe, but I have heard that they are not allowed in the United States. (Is this so?) There was some discussion of this on a literature list, and apparently some English romance novels have been altered for the US edition, cutting out cousin relationships.

The Bible states that Abraham was married to his sister, but I think that Muslims don't believe that.

[Black Agnes]

Actually there has been a bit of scientific research done in this area.

Saudi Intermarriages Have Genetic Costs

From the article... Marriages between relatives are widespread in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia, where a government study has found that 56.8% of all marriages are between first and second cousins or more distant relatives.

[Black Agnes]

Most (I think all) states forbid first cousin marriages and many forbid second cousin marriages. (purebred is inbred.)

[Consort]

Are these Saudi redneck jokes?

[Squantos]

LOL ! .............Nope Sorry. All my insults I learned over there can't be printed here......."SandfleaCSC" Eh......that wouldn't involve a Desert USAF/SPS environment in that CSC part would it ??

Stay Safe !

[SandfleaCSC]

I still have sand between my toes. :)