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Genetic counselling and customary consanguineous marriage

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 3, pages 225–229 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Consanguineous marriage is customary in many societies, but leads to an increased birth prevalence of infants with severe recessive disorders. It is therefore often proposed that consanguineous marriage should be discouraged on medical grounds. However, several expert groups have pointed out that this proposal is inconsistent with the ethical principles of genetic counselling, overlooks the social importance of consanguineous marriage and is ineffective. Instead, they suggest that the custom increases the possibilities for effective genetic counselling, and recommend a concerted effort to identify families at increased risk, and to provide them with risk information and carrier testing when feasible.

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Figure 1: Patrilineal kinship patterns can have very different social implications.
Figure 2: Outcomes of viable pregnancies of North European and British Pakistani couples, in which the fetus has a congenital or genetic disorder.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Royal Free and University College Medical School, 2nd Floor, Holborn Union Building, Highgate Hill, N19 5LW, London, UK

    Bernadette Modell

  2. Department of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK

    Bernadette Modell

  3. School of Health and Social Welfare, The Open University, Walton Hall, MK7 6AA, Milton Keynes, UK

    Aamra Darr

Authors
  1. Bernadette Modell
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  2. Aamra Darr
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bernadette Modell.

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DATABASES

OMIM 

cerebral palsy

cystic fibrosis

Down syndrome

thalassaemia

FURTHER INFORMATION

Alan Bittles' International Consortium on Consanguinity 

Genetic counselling

Information materials designed for patients and primary care workers in haemoglobin disorders

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Modell, B., Darr, A. Genetic counselling and customary consanguineous marriage. Nat Rev Genet 3, 225–229 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg754

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