Marrying close relatives within the limits of religious sanctions may not necessarily pose health risks for offspring, according to 130 doctors who attended here a workshop on 'pre-marital health check'. The workshop jointly organized by Ministry of Health and Dubai Department of Health and Medical Services targeted doctors from maternity and paediatric hospitals and preventive medicine in an effort to familiarize them with the 'pre-marital health check' programme being implemented by Ministry of Health as part of its strategy to bring about healthy families. Assistant Undersecretary for Public Health and Primary Health-care Dr. Maryam Matar said that the Ministry is moving ahead with a clear vision and plan in this regard. "We give emphasize to the need for enhancing professional capability of doctors in diagnosis as it can create good results in pre-marital health checks for prospective brides and grooms and avoid the chances contagious diseases.", she said. The pre-marital health checks can identify the chances of occurring genetically transmitted diseases like Talassimia which is found in the region and mainly attributed to marriages between close relatives. The workshop stressed that marriage between close relatives is not necessarily a reason for genetically transmitted diseases the chances of which can be determined prior to marriage through diagnostic techniques.The doctors also underlined the importance of prospective brides consuming folic acid as a way to minimize the chances of several diseases affecting nervous system. It is better to avoid the chances of giving birth to malformed babies through preventive measures, the workshop concluded. Source
3 comments:
I have heard that many Emirati marry their cousins, even in many cases their first cousins. You know, all the arranged marriages that are discussed around......well, maybe not in Dubai, but in the rest of the Gulf.
One of the main reasons locals marry among ourselves is to keep the family name and more importantly the wealth (inheritance and property) within their own. On the one hand their culture continues to erode bit by bit and all good things about it have pretty much vanished while we weren't looking. Yet, they hold on to this like dear life when the truth is it has very little to do with their culture/tradition and even littler to do with our religion.
"The Qur'an mentions incest in the Surat An-Nisa, which prohibits a man from having sexual relationships with his mother, daughter, sister, paternal aunt, maternal aunt, and niece. Relations with wet nurses are also prohibited."
Looks as inbreeding with cousins is allowed and there seems to be a lot of this going on here in the UAE.
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