Foreword

Consanguineous marriages have been common throughout human history and remain, even nowadays, frequent in a large part of the world. While consanguineous marriages have become very rare in the industrialized world, immigration from developing countries has increased their frequency, and, as a result, in many of those countries a significant percentage of the children are born to consanguineous couples.

Over the centuries, the social advantages of consanguineous marriages were evident, while the medical consequences were known but not considered important. The concerns about the medical consequences of consanguinity became particularly relevant after the dramatic reduction in neonatal mortality mainly due to the successful treatment of infectious diseases. In the last decades, congenital malformations and genetic diseases have become major factors underlying neonatal mortality in many developing countries. The mounting awareness regarding prevention of congenital and genetic disorders is generating an increasing number of studies on their relation to consanguinity.

The book edited by Professor Lutfi A. Jaber and Dr. Gabrielle J. Halpern provides a broad overview of the various facets of consanguinity including social and religious aspects as well as various characteristics of its medical impact. The various chapters written by the editors as well as by additional experts in their respective fields not only allow the reader to understand better the wide range of medical problems linked with consanguinity, but also propose strategies to reduce the burden. The book should be useful to all those working in communities in which consanguineous marriages are frequent.