Genetic Testing for pre married couple & Offspring Mental Health

[Rose2]

Hi there, I am new to the forum. I came searching for information about Genetic testing. I am new to this whole topic. Please help.

 

I am 24 years old. A guy proposed to marry me. The thing is, he is my second cousin. I heard/read about the discouragement for cousin marriages by some experts. I am kindda worried, and until this day, I did not accept or decline the guy's proposal. I don't know what to do. What I know is that I want to do the right thing which will benefit everyone (specifically speaking, the offspring).

 

My parents are first cousins. I have 2 sisters who don't have the best mental health condition; without going into lots of details about my sisters' mental health condition...but just to say it in general, depression is there, anti social to the extreme, illusion/imagining stuff really upsets me. I believe this is due to my parents marrying - being first cousins (My dad's mother is my mum's father's sisters. In other words, My grandmother from my dad's side is the sister of my grandfather from my mother's side). I might be wrong though for the cause to their condition because my parents never went through genetic testing.

 

Now with me and this guy proposing, I don't know how healthy will that be on the offspring since he is related to me:

- his mum is my mum's first cousin. His mum is also my dad's first cousin. In other words, his grandmother from his mother's side is the sister of my grandfather from my mum's side and also the sister of my grandmother from my dad's side.

 

I am worried! Are we too close? I see my two sister who don't have the best mental health, and just want to do the right thing for the benefit of the next generation. Will genetic testing be helpful in my case before deciding to marry? how helpfu? how accurate? I don't know what sort of testing is available, genetically out there, but is it possible to have test result that can give you an overview of having offsprings being mentally healthy???? What sort of genetic tests is available anyways?

 

Please help!

[Marat]

There is epidemiological evidence showing that certain psychiatric problems, such as depression and schizophrenia, are at least partially genetically conditioned, but like most genetic problems, the right environmental trigger also seems to be required to bring the potential problem to expression. Theories about the actual gene or genes predisposing people to develop various psychiatric illnesses are still speculative, however. To get the proper epidemiological odds on children inheriting familial mental diseases you would first need an exact diagnosis of the conditions you mention, since illusions can occur in depression, paranoia, schizophrenia, etc.

[SMF]

I think that a consultation with a genetic councilor is just what you need. Without expert advice you will forever be second guessing your decision about this marriage no matter what you decide. SM

[Synalon]

While I think people tend to exaggerate the effects of inbreeding on the first generation, reiterated instances of it have a greatly increased risk of negative consequences. Atom seems to have given the best advice you can get on this.

[Marat]

In my experience, genetic counsellors are by training perfect idiots, since they have a foolish predisposition in favor of getting the couples who seek their advice to have children no matter what the risks, because they adopt the parents' rather than the potential child's perspective. One couple I knew who had a very strong familial risk for type 1 diabetes consulted a genetic counsellor who urged them to have children anyway because "even if you adopted a child, the odds in absolute if not relative terms that it would have type 1 diabetes are not that much smaller than the chance that your own child would have it." But of course, the entire ethical issue is not to add to the stock of human misery by concentrating the genetic predisposition to type 1 diabetes in any one individual, not avoiding the problem for the parents that the child might have this disease.

 

I can't tell you have many patients with polycystic kidney disease, one of the most hideous and lethal medical conditions known, which carries a 50% risk of transmission to the next generation, decide to have children because, as they say, they "like to see the glass half full rather than half empty." What's half empty is their moral sense.

[SMF]

I know a genetic counselor quite well and the ethics of his profession require that he help clients get reliable testing, if possible or necessary, and he calculates the odds for various outcomes based on tests and inheritance so they can make a good decision for themselves. SM

[Asther3]

First off, congratulations on the proposal! Your situation right now actually amazes me since I rarely hear of familial marriages that continued from grandparents. I believe the first thing that you would like to ask yourself for your marriage is how much you love your to-be husband, how comfortable you will feel about it, and whether your other family members are also comfortable with it. It's important that the two of you have people that are understanding and willing to support your marriage even if you're cousins, because other people in our society tends to be very critical about it. If there's no such problems on those fields, then I don't see why you two shouldn't be together.

 

Your concern for the child is another issue, as there are a number of options available for a couple to have a child. From reading your post, I'm making an assumption that you and your husband-to-be wants a child of your own but you're afraid the child might turn out having defects as well. I'd have to agree with Synalon that reiterated instances have a greater chance of negative consequences but ultimately, you'll never know the outcome unless you get pregnant since you yourself are born normal despite having parents and grandparents that are related. There are ways like prenatal genetic testing and chorionic villus sampling that enables you to know whether the child you conceived have abnormal genetic traits. There are issues surrounding this though, you can read more about it here: Debate continues concerning ethics of prenatal genetic testing. Personally, my stand is that this process is not to make the option of abortion available in case there are detected abnormality, but simply to give you and your husband a foresight in your upcoming parenthood so you'll both have a time to prepare, understand, emotionally be ready to accept the child in whatever condition he/she's in, and be the best parents in the world for them.

 

Some couple choose adoption when they know they don't have the capability of having a healthy child due to physical or gender issue, or they run high risk of conceiving a child with defect or abnormality. Others approach the institutions that could help them find sperm/egg donors (as is the case with some lesbian couples and partner suffering from infertility). Or, some even choose the road of not having children at all. The point is, instead of giving up the marriage right off the bat, it will be better if both of you will have some intimate conversation about this. Sorry for such a long reply as I'm also a woman and can't help but feel concerned about the issue of pregnancy, but I hope the best for you two!

[Marat]

More generally, if the possibility of romantic affection being realized fully through marriage is threatened by the prospect of having children with genetic problems, it is best simply to go for love and forget about having children. Because there is a strong cultural (and religious) assumption in favor of having children, the downsides of the experience are simply excluded from serious consideration, but should be given their proper weight.

 

First, when couples have children their own intellectual and emotional development tends to stall since they begin investing their talents for human development in their offspring rather than in themselves. As a result, their evolution as humans stagnates at the age they give birth. Instead of letting their imagination and intellect continue to expand, they contract both in order to focus on imparting the very basics to their children.

 

Second, anyone over 12 years of age should know that life is generally a hideous experience. Since human flourishing depends on sustaining itself as an organic entity in a world governed by entropy, the natural tendency of existence will be to incline human life towards accidents, disease, decay, death, and the frustration of all its efforts to build order. The breadth of human awareness and the imperative of concentrating more on dangers than on pleasures causes our consciousness to operate as a torture appartus for ourselves, since it magnifies the bad and turns away from the good as no longer requiring its attention. Our capacity to anticipate misfortunes and dwell on them after they occur further augments their power over their natural scope. Also, given the possibility of a variety of extreme horrors overtaking us, from Progeria to Huntington's, from pancreatic cancer to Alzheimer's, it seems preferable not to drag any new human entities into this terrible gamble called life.

 

Third, with middle class incomes stagnant or falling because of neoliberalism, the only route to prosperity for many couples will be avoiding increasing expenses by deciding not to procreate, thus eliminating a good $300,000 of costs per child.

 

Fourth, you also help preserve the scarce resources of a stressed environment for the benefit of the rest of humanity. Even if you obsess every day over energy conservation, you will never approach the energy savings achieved by simply not having a child.

[John Cuthber]

Marat, may I bring to your attention a reasonably wealthy family who have been inbreeding for years.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Royal_Family

 

Rose,

More seriously- the fact is that the whole of Europe's royalty were marrying eachother for generations. (with a bit of help from servants over the years).

It wasn't a wise move, but they got away with it fairly well. Inbreeding isn't that bad.

 

I agree with SMF's idea that you find a properly qualified councillor about this.

[AnimeScientistMewtwo]

I find the views on this topic fasinating, scary and frighteningly true.

 

And here in South Africa, where I live, we do need new foreign blood in the gene pool, otherwise the population's young up-and-coming generation of city slickers will stay away and foreign investment is down.Yet, people are taking into consideration the enviroment, the ethics,enthics and really it's all exciting. However, politics is a state of mind, and fear mongering is definitely not on. I feel if you do work on the relationship, building up trust, looking into the possible options and making an informed choice, it shall benefit all.