Consanguineous Marriage
Suehil Abdurrahman
English 201
Literature Review
Consanguineous Marriage
Consanguineous marriage in clinical genetics is defined as a marriage between two related individuals. The individuals come from close kin or are second cousins exhibiting inbreeding coefficient higher or equal to 0.0156. Consanguinity is more prevalent amongst the world population residing in North Africa, West Asia, and Middle East, and among these communities’ emigrants who are currently residing in Australia, Europe, and North America. The increased public awareness programs on genetic and congenital disorders prevention in offspring has made various couples to think about reproduction and marriage. This is especially in communities that are highly consanguineous. Among these people, there has always been a lack of, or very little education concerning the effects of consanguineous marriages to the offspring. Rather, one may say that these people do not take into account what might happen if they get into such marriages. These communities are in pursuit of counseling on consanguinity. Providers of primary health care are faced with numerous challenges especially when they have to provide answers to consanguineous couples regarding their offspring anticipated health risks. Thus, it is important if health care providers are trained on areas such as consanguinity premarital and preconception counseling.
Bittles (33) argues that the widespread form of consanguineous marriage globally is contracted between first cousins, those that are closely related to the parents of the marrying cousins, of whom the parents may be brothers and/or sisters. One eighth of these couples’ genes are inherited from the ancestor that is common amongst them. He also points out that national populations can be categorized into four main groups. The first group involves individuals whose consanguineous marriage accounts for approximately 1% of Unions, whilst the second category accounts for 1% to 10%, the
English 201
Literature Review
Consanguineous Marriage
Consanguineous marriage in clinical genetics is defined as a marriage between two related individuals. The individuals come from close kin or are second cousins exhibiting inbreeding coefficient higher or equal to 0.0156. Consanguinity is more prevalent amongst the world population residing in North Africa, West Asia, and Middle East, and among these communities’ emigrants who are currently residing in Australia, Europe, and North America. The increased public awareness programs on genetic and congenital disorders prevention in offspring has made various couples to think about reproduction and marriage. This is especially in communities that are highly consanguineous. Among these people, there has always been a lack of, or very little education concerning the effects of consanguineous marriages to the offspring. Rather, one may say that these people do not take into account what might happen if they get into such marriages. These communities are in pursuit of counseling on consanguinity. Providers of primary health care are faced with numerous challenges especially when they have to provide answers to consanguineous couples regarding their offspring anticipated health risks. Thus, it is important if health care providers are trained on areas such as consanguinity premarital and preconception counseling.
Bittles (33) argues that the widespread form of consanguineous marriage globally is contracted between first cousins, those that are closely related to the parents of the marrying cousins, of whom the parents may be brothers and/or sisters. One eighth of these couples’ genes are inherited from the ancestor that is common amongst them. He also points out that national populations can be categorized into four main groups. The first group involves individuals whose consanguineous marriage accounts for approximately 1% of Unions, whilst the second category accounts for 1% to 10%, the
Cited: Agarwal, Mukesh, Nagelkerke and Denic Srdjan. Denic S, Nagelkerke N, Agarwal M. Choice of kin in consanguineous marriages: Effects of altruism and ecological factors. Annals Of Human Biology 37.6(2010):738-753. Bittles A.H. A Background summary of Consanguineous Marriage. Centre for Human Genetics, Australia, 2001 Hamamy H, Jamhawi L, Al-Darawsheh J, Ajlouni K. Consanguineous marriages in Jordan: why is the rate changing with time?. Clinical Genetics [67.6(2005):511-516. Uksel S, Kutlubay A, Karaoglu L, Yologlu S. The Prevalence of Consanguineous Marriages in the City of Malatya, Turkey. Turkish Journal Of Medical Sciences 39.1(2009):133-137..