Consequences of incestuous marriage

(Baonghean) - The situation of incestuous marriage has been happening for many years in the mountainous districts of our province. This is one of the causes of racial degradation, seriously affecting the quality of the population in ethnic minority areas...

The consanguineous marriage status of the Mong people in Ky Son accounts for 15% - 20% of the married couples. As a person with many years of working in the population sector and also a Mong person, Mr. Mua Xia Lu - Director of the Center for Population - Family Planning of Ky Son district analyzed: "There are many reasons leading to consanguineous marriage, the main reason is custom. They can get married very early from thirteen or fourteen years old, family members can marry each other, for example, a son marries an uncle's child, an uncle marries an aunt's child, a nephew marries an aunt, an uncle marries a nephew, a nephew marries an aunt, an older brother marries a younger sister..."

A media campaign on incestuous marriage in Quy Hop.

From Ky Son town, I went up to Nam Can, where nearly 70% of the population is Mong, the rest are Thai and Khmu. Meeting the chairman of Ho Chong Nhia commune, he happily boasted: Thanks to the asphalt road straight to Nam Can, there is a place for trade between the two countries Vietnam - Laos, so life here is much more developed than other places in the commune, education alone is ranked second in the district... However, no matter how much they develop, the Mong people here still have not escaped from bad customs such as early marriage, incestuous marriage and the practice of wife kidnapping...

Looking no further, in Mr. Ho Chong Nhia's family, last year the eldest daughter Ho YC got married. C's husband is actually her father's sister, Con O. This wedding was completely voluntary, and neither Ho YC nor Lau Ba H were unaware that this was an incestuous marriage. H is currently a medical staff member of the Preventive Medicine Center doing quarantine work at the Nam Can Border Gate Health Station, while C is a fourth-year student at Thai Binh University of Medicine. Chairman Ho Chong Nhia admitted: "This is a very normal thing among the Mong people. Maybe because the Mong people have always lived very independently, they value their clan identity. Therefore, if people in the same family, with the same bloodline marry each other, they will maintain the lineage, love and protect each other more."

Following the Vice Chairman of Lau Ba Thai commune a short distance from Truong Son village to Tien Tieu village, he pointed out to me at least two families where the children of cousins ​​got married, namely the family of Ho Ba C and Lau YM, the family of Ho Ba M and Lau Y H. Both couples were under 25 years old but had been married for several years and had children. Talking to them, they were all innocent: "If you love each other, you get married, there is no problem, the children are not affected at all. Besides, it is also accepted by the judiciary...". There has not been any research on the consequences of incestuous marriage in Ky Son, but the Chairman of Nam Can commune is worried: "Compared to the past, the Mong people today are not as tall, many children are malnourished, stunted or disabled, slow to develop...".

Science has also proven that many children born from consanguineous couples are at risk of genetic diseases due to the influence of the environment on the combination of recessive genes carrying the disease. Children with the disease may have facial bone deformities, enlarged abdomens, which can lead to the risk of death. If the recessive genes of the husband and wife combine, they can also produce deformed children or genetic diseases such as color blindness, albinism, ichthyosis, especially common is the congenital hemolytic disease Thalassemia.

Dr. Pham Thi Thuy Minh - Department of Gastroenterology, Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital, said: "Most of the cases of congenital hemolytic anemia are children from mountainous districts, mostly Mong and Thai ethnic groups. Hemolytic anemia is not an infectious disease like tuberculosis or hepatitis, but a genetic disease in which the patient receives both disease genes from both parents. People carrying the disease gene often do not have any special clinical manifestations, so if two people carrying the disease gene marry each other, each time they give birth, there will be a 25% chance that the child will have congenital hemolytic anemia.

The disease has two manifestations: anemia and iron overload. People with moderate and severe forms of the disease can cause many bone complications (short stature, deformed facial bones), cirrhosis, gallstones, arrhythmia, heart failure... as well as endocrine complications such as delayed puberty, diabetes... This disease cannot be completely cured, except in cases of bone marrow replacement. Because its initial symptoms are similar to many other common illnesses, most parents are subjective, and by the time they bring their children to the hospital, they are very serious. In the treatment area for patients with hemolytic anemia at the Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital, on average, dozens of pediatric patients are hospitalized every week. Severe patients need a blood transfusion once a month, and less severe patients need a blood transfusion once every two or three months.

Holding her 6-year-old child who was as skinny as a kindergartener, Ms. Lo Thi May, Chan village, Tam Thai commune, Tuong Duong district, said: “When Khanh was three years old, he suddenly got sick. At first, we only saw symptoms such as loss of appetite, fever, pale skin... so the family was indifferent. Then, one time he fainted, we panicked and took him to the emergency room. When we got to the Maternity and Pediatrics Hospital, the doctor said Khanh had congenital hemolytic anemia, an enlarged spleen, and was at risk of rupture.” To treat their child, every month the couple had to “pack rice and rice” to go to Vinh for a blood transfusion, the cost for each hospital stay was several million VND. Because their child was constantly sick, he had grown up, but the couple did not dare to have another child. When asked if it was because they were related by blood, she hesitated to say. The Central Children's Hospital's synthesis also shows that: Currently, there are about 5 million children carrying genetic disease genes due to gene mutations from incestuous marriages, mostly anemia and congenital dwarfism.

As the first person to do a scientific research on the consequences of consanguineous marriage in Nghe An, Dr. Nguyen Canh Phu, Vice Principal of Nghe An University of Medicine, said: “Consanguineous marriage and its consequences greatly affect the quality of the population. In particular, if this condition is not detected and prevented early, the risk can affect from generation to generation... Although the research has not been published, through blood samples taken from mountainous schools, the rate of children in our province with congenital hemolytic anemia is not small. For those who have detected the disease, it must be monitored and treated. Adolescents should come for premarital counseling before getting married to avoid consanguineous marriage. If you are already married and pregnant, you need to have a prenatal screening test; if you have the disease, you must terminate the pregnancy.”

This reality also requires further promotion of propaganda on the status of incestuous marriage, first of all, it is necessary to provide knowledge so that people understand the harmful effects and impacts of the disease on population quality. In addition, it is necessary to coordinate with the Justice and Culture sectors to propagate the elimination of backward customs, explain the provisions of the Law on Marriage and Family such as "prohibiting marriage between people of the same bloodline, between relatives within three generations" so that people understand and comply with the law.

Implementing the project "Reducing incestuous marriage" starting this year, the Provincial Population Office has also organized communication on early marriage and incestuous marriage in 10 communes of Tuong Duong and Quy Hop districts. This can be considered a positive move and hopefully will soon have an impact on people's awareness and thinking with the aim of improving population quality and improving the quality of the race.

Song Hoang