Consanguineous
Marriages: Jurisprudence vs. Medicine
Dr. Ahmad Bin AdbulAziz AlHaddad
Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities
Department, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Abstract
Marriage is a human necessity
that has been extensively addressed by all religions. Islam determines the
rules which regulate the marriage. Also, it determines the criteria that should
be available in the man and woman to marry. Thus, this marriage would lead to
the building of a family based on fairness and equality. Subsequently, the
social bonds will be strengthened between the families, tribes, and the society
as a whole.
However, a consanguineous marriage is not necessary to increase the
strength of such these bonds. In some cases, consanguinity may lead to breaking
up of the relationships between the individuals of the family due to problems,
which may result in a divorce at the end. Research in human genetics has also
proven that unrelated marriage is much better than consanguineous marriage,
because inherited diseases are transmitted from parents to their progeny by consanguineous
marriage more than unrelated marriages. However, this theory is correct only in
certain cases, such as the inheritance of rare diseases; therefore, we can not
consider it as a general law. Consanguineous marriages are not the reason for
increase in the prevalence of autosomal recessive diseases in all cases.
Basically, it depends on the prevalence of the gene causing the disease in the
entire society. Hence, pre-marital genetic testing should be performed for both
related and unrelated individuals. This test would not result in providing
complete protection from inherited diseases, but it will decrease the
prevalence of inherited diseases. To conclude, Islam neither prefers nor
discourages consanguineous marriages.