U.S. polygamist community faces rare genetic disorder - Hint: Its the inbreeding

http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/U_S_polygamist_community_faces_rare_genetic_disorder.html?siteSect=143&sid=7926515&cKey=1181826495000

COLORADO CITY, Arizona (Reuters) - In a dusty neighbourhood under sheer sandstone cliffs studded with juniper on the Arizona-Utah border, a rare genetic disorder is spreading through polygamous families on a wave of inbreeding.

The twin border communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, have the world's highest known prevalence of fumarase deficiency, an enzyme irregularity that causes severe mental retardation brought on by cousin marriage, doctors say.

"Arizona has about half the world's population of known fumarase deficiency patients," said Dr. Theodore Tarby, a paediatric neurologist who has treated many of the children at Arizona clinics under contracts with the state.

"It exists in a certain percentage of the broader population but once you get a tendency to inbreed you're inbreeding people who have the gene there, so you markedly increase the risk of developing the condition," he said.

but when I was about ten years old I had one helluva crush on my older cousin. Damn she was hot.

:spank:

There is a reason why marrying relatives is looked down upon. The more diverse your genes the healthier you are. Pure breeds tend to have all sorts of genetic disorders.

Just adding more to the same theme. The Phelps clan and their church are all three intermarrying families. They all seem deranged though it evidently hasn't affected Actual Learning Ability because the bulk of the Westboro clan are college educated. ...but genetic defects can present in all sorts of ways and there is obviously a high degree of mental illness. Mental illness can be a combination of nurture and nature.

There are familial links in lots of mental illness and they would definitely increase with inbreeding.
Lee

It was what eventually brought down the Russian czarist regime (okay, so it wasn't JUST this one thing!) with inbreeding being the contributing factor to hemophilia, and it was frowned upon by most aristocracies when they married just to have male issue.

People just don't get it: a limited gene pool is a killer. Gee--another wonderful myth of the fundies crushed--can you think what could be worse than having just "Adam and Eve" as the ancestors of us all? **shiver**

Anyone remember the episode of X Files called "Family"? It was about the three monstrous guys having continual sex with their mother (who had no legs, and who they kept under the bed) and producing more and more mutations which pretty much died? I always think of that episode as showing the ultimate in inbreeding.

"three monstrous guys having continual sex with their mother (who had no legs, and who they kept under the bed)"

I love the X-Files BUT I have categorically refused to watch that episode....E-V-E-R period.

On Easter Sunday a friend and I went for a back-roads drive. We were off-roading and drove down a spectacular red rock canyon and ended up in a beautiful park. We drove around the park and headed into the adjoining town. As we drove I started to get the creeps. All the houses were modern, split level type houses, very huge with additions built on and none of them had any WINDOWS. The streets were extremely wide and laid out in a perfect East/West, North/South grid with one main diagonal boulevard cutting across the town. I remarked at the time on what an anal retentive town it was. Every house alike, not a speck of litter, etc.

There was NOBODY around. After about 10 minutes we saw a car in the distance and decided to follow it. We got on the big diagonal boulevard and followed it to the end. It ended at school which also had no WINDOWS and there was the entire town. All the men were in black, all the women had on long sack-like dresses with aprons and their heads covered. There were lots of women and children and very few men. It was apparent that the school also served as the Church. It looked more like a Mormon Temple than a school.

Everyone just turned around and looked at us. They just stared and stared. I got so creeped out I told my friend to turn around and get the hell out of there. We drove back through the town and I began to realize just where we were. There were a few businesses out at the highway but even the little motel did not have WINDOWS. We stopped to get gas and the three men in the station came out and just watched us while we filled up.

My friend wanted to go back to the park but I was totally creeped out and just wanted to get the hell out of there. When we got back to Oregon I looked the place up because it was one of the weirdest places I'd ever been and I wanted to confirm my suspicion that it was in fact a fundamentalist Mormon town. It was.

I later read some article about these people not using windows in their houses because they believe windows allow evil (the devil) to keep tabs on them. My personal belief is that it would allow the world to see what actually goes on (abuse of women and children) in those houses.

Another time I was at a hot springs in Northern Utah. There was a large swimming pool with several spas surrounding it. I was lounging in the spas and decided to go for a swim. On entering the pool, I realized that there were lots of kids in the pool but none were actually swimming. The whole pool was ringed with adults, dressed in black, women with long dresses with sleeves and men in dark black suits, (it was about 101 F) and they were all just sitting in chairs observing. I realized that the kids were all taking swimming lessons but whenever any of them would start to splash, or God forbid, have any fun, one of the men would get up and call them to the side of the pool.

I realized that they were fundamentalist Mormons who had decided that their children should learn to swim but they were absolutely not to have ANY FUN while doing it.

Needless to say, I left. It was just too hard to relax and loll around in the spa after that.

These people are really sick and I feel so badly for those innocent children.

It gives me the creeps just reading about it!

I'm glad you decided to get the hell out of there!

:puke:

:kick: