Consanguineous Relationships Might Provide Medical Cures

A friend of FME alerted me to this dailymail.co.uk article by Amanda Williams about an interesting scientific finding in Ecuador.

They are completely free of two of the most debilitating illnesses - diabetes and cancer.

Now scientists hope a community of dwarfs living in a remote corner of Ecuador could hold the key to a cure for both.

The Laron dwarfs, who have a condition believed to be caused by inbreeding, appear to be completely immune to cancer and other age and lifestyle associated diseases.

People who inherit the genetic defect are in perfect proportion but grow only to an average height of 4ft.

For more than 24 years, endocrinologists Jaime Guevara-Aguirre (top left) and Arlan Rosenbloom (top right) have tracked a population of Ecuadorians dwarves who seem to be immune to cancer

Does this mean anything for others? Well, it might...

Now scientists are developing a drug which they hope will do artificially what the genetic defect in Laron syndrome does naturally - protect against DNA damage that fuels cancer growth. 

There's a lot more to this interesting story.

The fact is, inbreeding isn't always detrimental. There can been good results or bad results from inbreeding because recessive genes could have beneficial or detrimental effects. While this blog is here to support relationship rights for all adults, including full marriage equality, we neither encourage nor discourage close relatives from having genetic children together. But we do discourage ignorant statements about the children of close relatives (most of whom are healthy), and we think whether or not adults have children together is decision that should be between them, and whichever medical professionals they choose to involve.