Is it true that if you have a child with someone you are related to, the child will be disabled? If so why?

Answer 1

Not necessarily, but the chances are greater. You and your relatives have some of the same genes. If you carry a gene that causes certain birth defects and diseases, there's a greater possibility that your blood relative carries this same gene. That's why inbreeding is frowned upon, and incest is a crime.

Answer 2

Not true. The problem with inbreeding is that both parents' genomes will be very similar, so any 'problem genes' have a greater than normal chance of being repeated. This is not a guarantee, of course, merely an increased probability. Outbreeding increases the chance that the parents' genomes will be different in some ways, which can help by 'balancing' defective genes with working genes. Each of us gets half of each pair of chromosomes from one parent, and half from the other (leaving out the X/Y stuff), so if you've got a defective gene on chromosome 3, but your partner has that gene working fine, your children will hopefully be OK. If your partner has that same defect, though, then your kids will be 0/2 for that gene, and therefore at some risk of problems, depending on what that gene regulates. For most of us, though, unless you're having a kid with your clone or with an identical twin (that would be a neat trick, by the way), your chances of having absolute identity at critical genes with anybody other than immediate family are not grossly large. Obviously the odds are increased if you are part of a population that is very restricted in its marriage choices, like the Mennonites or the Mormons or the Hapsburg royal family. 'Inbreeding depression' vs 'hybrid vigor'; it's a real consideration, but human cultures have demonstrated all sorts of unusual pairing-up rules over recorded history, based more on economics than genetics, I believe.

Answer 3

It's true. I'm not exactly sure why but I think it's because the person you are related to 'carries the same blood as you'. For the child to be disabled you have to marry a member of your family because some of your genes are the same. If you marry someone like your cousin your child/children won't be disabled seeing as Queen Victoria's husband was her cousin too and they had nine children together which had no disabilities.

Answer 4

There is a higher chance the baby will have a disability. This is because as the parents come from the same gene pool, any inhereted diseases are more likely to be carried by both parents hence the baby is more likely to be born with a disability.

Answer 5

not necessarily but in countries like the middle east where they tend to marry close cousins there is more chance as obviously u have the same family genes if u marry someone not related to you then their genes are totally different.

Answer 6

Inbreeding is breeding between close relatives, whether plant or animal. If practiced repeatedly, it often leads to a reduction in genetic diversity, and the increased gene expression of recessive traits, resulting in inbreeding depression. This may result in inbred individuals exhibiting reduced health and fitness and lower levels of fertility.
The taboo of incest has been discussed by many social scientists. Anthropologists attest that it exists in most cultures. As inbreeding within the first generation often produces expression of recessive traits, the prohibition has been discussed as a possible functional response to the requirement of culling those born deformed, or with undesirable traits.[citation needed] The eugenicists used breeding techniques to promulgate their ideas of human perfection and "illness" on all humans.[citation needed] Some anthropologists like Charles Davenport advocated the traditional forms of assortative breeding to form "better" human stock.[citation needed] Geneticists and other medical professionals have studied the effects of inbreeding in humans, noting considerable medical consequences even in the first generation.[14]


[edit] Royalty and nobility

Charles II of Spain was physically and mentally disabled, in large part due to generations of inbreeding.[15]The royal and noble families of Europe have close blood ties which are strengthened by royal intermarriage; the most discussed instances of interbreeding relate to European monarchies. Examples abound in every royal family; in particular, the ruling dynasties of Spain and Portugal were in the past very inbred. Several Habsburgs, Bourbons and Wittelsbachs married aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. Even in the British royal family, which is very moderate in comparison, there has scarcely been a monarch in 300 years who has not married a (near or distant) relative. Indeed, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh are second cousins once removed, both being descended from King Christian IX of Denmark. They are also third cousins as great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. European monarchies did avoid brother-sister marriages, though Jean V of Armagnac was an exception.

It is not necessarily the case that there was a greater amount of inbreeding within royalty than there is in the population as a whole: it may simply be better documented. Among genetic populations that are isolated, opportunities for exogamy are reduced. Isolation may be geographical, leading to inbreeding among peasants in remote mountain valleys. Or isolation may be social, induced by the lack of appropriate partners, such as Protestant princesses for Protestant royal heirs. Since the late Middle Ages, it is the urban middle class that has had the widest opportunity for outbreeding.

There were at times serious long-term health and political consequences to multi-generational interbreeding in royal families between persons who were closely related.[16] Most notable was Charles II of Spain, who had multiple, severe disabilities largely linked to inbreeding.[17] Not only was he developmentally disabled and could not chew his food properly, he also could not produce children,[18] thus leading to the collapse of his bloodline and the War of the Spanish Succession.[19]

Answer 7

No, but it is called inbreeding, and in any species can lead to birth defects and mutations, etc. It is problems created from too small a gene pool.

Cheetahs in the Serengeti almost went extinct from this once....

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Answer 8

It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does (in a lot of cases) it's to do with Genes and Chromosome's

Answer 9

THINK SOMETHIN TO DO WIV GENE STRUCTURE AND RELATIVES AVIN CERTAIN TYPES AND IF THEY GET MIXED WIV RELATIVES GO AGAINST EACH OTHER AND CREATE DEFORMATIES.WHOD WANT TO ANYWAY HOW COULD YOYU FANCY A COUSIN ETC YUK FRAGGLEROCK OR WHAT NOT RIGHT,AFTER ALL ADAM ANEVE WERNT RELATED.OR WERE TEHY

Answer 10

apparently so ,its called incest