DNA is the most fascinating subject to me and I read articles that mention it in every category from True Crime, Animal Husbandry, and of course, Genealogy and Family History.
One night I decided to research DNA and incest. Some very interesting websites and news came up and basically, there are many companies offering the test. More often than an individual wishing to discover if they are a product of incest, a child is hospitalized and doctors order a DNA test to help diagnose the child who has a rare or strange disease, and up it comes that the child has double or missing DNA proving it is the product of incest! incest can increase the chances of certain diseases. (At the same time if a community that is free of certain illness, say a mental illness, intermarries, such as in the Amish, that community will stay free of that illness. In some communities in which there were cousin marriages and close village marriages over time, such as is the case with many Eastern European Jewish people, certain diseases are amplified. In order to no longer have those diseases some Jewish communities are actively testing for genetic diseases and avoiding marriages with others who carry it!)
In a college anthropology class I once learned that the subject of incest came under a theory of TABOO. At the time scientists didn't think that there was much else wrong with incest but that so many cultures around the world made it taboo for their own reasons. After all "primitive" societies were not savvy about DNA or genetics and attributed a lot of things to forces in nature such as Spirits or Gods. Whole social structures were developed to avoid intermarriage with brothers and sisters, first cousins, parents, aunts and uncles, though we know that brother-sister marriage was practiced to keep blood lines (and inheritances) "true" in other cultures. Such was the case with Cleopatra of ancient Egypt, for instance. I personally have met people living today whose parents were first cousins in Italy. Missing or duplicate Genes did result in one of the sisters in such a family being developmentally retarded.
There are many articles on the Internet that ask the question of what a doctor should do if while treating a patient he or she discovers they are the product of incest. What is the ethical and moral thing to do in 2014, this culture? What about the people who DO NOT KNOW THEY ARE CLOSELY RELATED when they met and have children, such is the case with children born of sperm donations or who were adopted. Makes you think...
Well, the scientists are also saying that SMELL has a lot to do with who we pick as a sexual partner, and well, we don't feel attracted to people who smell too much like us! There are also those who say that taking the contraception, "The Pill." cannot smell so well.
