CBC linked to an article recently on the topic of race that I found interesting, partly because the author stated “racially pure” = “inbreeding”. Which is really true when you think about it – whites who marry whites and asians who marry asians are just inbreeding, but on a big enough scale where we aren’t worried about major birth defects.

However. There are many genetic diseases that are found primarily in one ethnic group or another – and I think this is a good example of inbreeding on a large scale. Northern Europeans and Ashkenazi Jews have the highest rates of carrying the gene for Cystic Fibrosis…Africans carry for Sickle-Cell Anemia….Asians carry for Thalessemia, etc.

Of course this had nothing to do with why I married Ang – I wasn’t shopping in the gene pool, naturally. But when we were expecting our first baby, I went to the OBGyn for the initial prenatal appointment for blood work. The midwife explained that I could have a blood screening for CF if I chose, but that it wasn’t mandatory. I remember her saying “you’re probably not a carrier, but I want you to know the test is available and it’s pretty simple.” I think a lot of women choose not to have these blood screenings, because by then you are already pregnant, so what’s the point? Unless you’re planning on aborting based on the results, it is seen by many women as unnecessary.

I don’t know what possessed me to have the test. I know I wouldn’t have aborted — I must have been struck by momentary curiosity.

When the results came back, the midwife was clearly surprised. She called me to let me know that I was indeed a carrier for CF. This meant that if my husband was white, the next step would be to test him. If both parents have the gene, you have a 1-in-4 chance with every pregnancy of having a child afflicted with the disease. (Among Europeans the rate of carrying for CF is something like 1 in 30 people.)

You cannot imagine how I sat there by the phone, struck by paralysis as I contemplated my child having CF. It is sheer terror to consider that future, of your baby’s life possibly being cut short. In an instant, I was amazed by my good fortune in marrying Ang.

I explained to the midwife that the father was Chinese. She seemed relieved. She said that his chance of carrying was so low, she didn’t think it imperative that we test him (I think the Asian rate of carrying this gene is 1/100).

There is no one in my family tree that suffered from CF – so until this point, none of us knew we were carriers. Which means that if we keep marrying white people, the odds that one of us ends up with a child with CF increase. So far we’ve been lucky! (And if I hadn’t had that test, we still wouldn’t know. I’m glad we found out about this before my brother had children, since he married a whitey.)

Marrying outside of our little inbreeding communities (ha) has a lot of good side effects, and I know firsthand how it feels to dodge a genetic bullet. There are diseases that can be passed from just one parent though, so I think it’s good to be aware of some of these things when you have kids – at least you’re prepared, so if one of your children exhibits some worrying symptoms, you have an idea of what to rule out. (I read recently that many Indian communities have high rates of Celiac disease, which is very common in Caucasians as well, so that’s a good one to be familiar with.)

Anyway, sometimes when I get pissy with Ang over something, I help myself get over it by remembering his positive attributes. Sometimes if I’m really angry, the only thing i can come up with is “Well at least his DNA spared our kids the possibility of a horrible disease.” So, you know, he’s got that going for him. Grrr.

***EDITED TO ADD: Ara on To Be or Not to Be wrote a great complementary piece to this featuring how inbreeding can also have the opposite effect (good things), resulting in mutations that help humans. She goes into a lot of info about how this has helped with HIV especially. A very interesting read!***