People are discovering the truth about their biological parents with DNA—and learning that incest is far more common than many think.

The geneticist Jim Wilson, at the University of Edinburgh, was shocked by the frequency he found in the U.K. Biobank, an anonymized research database: One in 7,000 people, according to his unpublished analysis, was born to parents who were first-degree relatives—a brother and a sister or a parent and a child. “That’s way, way more than I think many people would ever imagine,” he told me. And this number is just a floor: It reflects only the cases that resulted in pregnancy, that did not end in miscarriage or abortion, and that led to the birth of a child who grew into an adult who volunteered for a research study.

Most of the people affected may never know about their parentage, but these days, many are stumbling into the truth after AncestryDNA and 23andMe tests.

  • Wanderer@lemm.ee
    2210·
    6 months ago

    The UK actually has a big issue with incest. Especially with cousins. Causes loads of child fatalities.

    Really big issue with people from Asia, incest is the norm there.

    Edit for those downvoting me is this a recorded issue. It’s been in the news. Just because it doesnt fit the narrative or we arent meant to talk about those things doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.

    • BangersAndMash@lemmy.world
      713·
      6 months ago

      I’ll upvote you if you provided a source rather than just insisting something is true because you say so.

      Edit: actually, I won’t upvote you. Incest isn’t the norm anywhere you fuckwit.

      • Wanderer@lemm.ee
        19·
        6 months ago

        actually, I won’t upvote you. Incest isn’t the norm anywhere you fuckwit.

        Heres is a source. So you can get fucked, obviously you don’t know what you are on about this is why information is so important and not just making out you know things.

        “follows the health of 13,500 babies born in Bradford Royal Infirmary between 2007 and 2011. It the largest study of its kind in the UK to date.”

        “60 percent of the Pakistani mothers in the study were married to a blood relative.”

        https://www.progress.org.uk/risk-of-birth-defects-from-cousin-marriage-revealed-by-bradford-study/