Marriage between close relatives is not permitted by law. Beyond ethical and customary considerations, prohibiting marriage among direct blood relatives aims to maintain the strength and health of future generations.
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Medical research has demonstrated the harmful effects of consanguineous marriages: Healthy couples may have children with deformities or hereditary diseases such as color blindness (inability to distinguish between red and green), albinism, and ichthyosis.
Explaining this phenomenon, genetics indicates that every trait in the body is determined by genes, including pathological conditions. Each person has approximately 500,000 to 600,000 genes, among which there are inevitably a few recessive disease-causing genes that may not express themselves under normal conditions.
Recessive disease-causing genes persist in families from generation to generation. If marriage occurs with individuals from different lineages, the risk of disease manifestation is generally low. In contrast, consanguineous marriage creates favorable conditions for similar recessive disease genes to meet, resulting in children with diseases or genetic deformities.
In small, isolated populations (where intermarriage with other populations is limited), the incidence of congenital hereditary diseases is very high. In Vietnam, surveys have shown that certain hereditary diseases are more prevalent among ethnic minorities. This may be due to customs and geographical barriers that restrict their marriages to a specific population.
Dr. HOÀI HƯƠNG
