Consanguineous Marriage Issues In Saudi Arabia

Just the other day I posted about Bride, 12, Marries Groom, 15 which had appeared in the Arab News. Now this article about Consanguineous Marriage⁽⁽¹⁾⁾ appears:

Symposium to Focus on Consanguineous Marriage
by Raid Qusti, Arab News

RIYADH, 27 June 2007 — Prince Sattam, the deputy governor of Riyadh, will inaugurate the Kingdom’s first Health Marriage Symposium next week, the Ministry of Health announced yesterday.

The two-day symposium will deal with blood diseases from marriages that take place between relatives and ways to prevent diseases being transmitted to children. Several national, Gulf, and international experts in the medical field are expected at the event.

I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

1. A mating is consanguineous when the mating couple is related to one another through a common ancestor (e.g.,”by blood”). A consanguineous mating is one which occurs between related individuals (e.g., cousins, siblings). [Source: NHBLI/NCBI Glossary] Utrecht University [↩]