The geneticist Jim Wilson, at the University of Edinburgh, was shocked by the frequency he found in the U.K. Biobank, an anonymized research database: One in 7,000 people, according to his unpublished analysis, was born to parents who were first-degree relatives—a brother and a sister or a parent and a child. “That’s way, way more than I think many people would ever imagine,” he told me. And this number is just a floor: It reflects only the cases that resulted in pregnancy, that did not end in miscarriage or abortion, and that led to the birth of a child who grew into an adult who volunteered for a research study.

Most of the people affected may never know about their parentage, but these days, many are stumbling into the truth after AncestryDNA and 23andMe tests.

  • NounsAndWords@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    61
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    6 months ago

    One in 7,000 people, according to his unpublished analysis, was born to parents who were first-degree relatives—a brother and a sister or a parent and a child. “That’s way, way more than I think many people would ever imagine,”

    Now I’m not walking around thinking I’m living in a porn movie, but a rate of 0.014% is not what I would call shocking.

    • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      32
      arrow-down
      13
      ·
      6 months ago

      And this number is just a floor: It reflects only the cases that resulted in pregnancy, that did not end in miscarriage or abortion, and that led to the birth of a child who grew into an adult who volunteered for a research study.

      Either way, what number of parent raping and impregnating their child or sibling raping and impregnating their sibling would be shocking to you? Because to most people it’s probably “anything that isn’t zero”.

      • NounsAndWords@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        42
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        6 months ago

        It’s shocking to you that rape exists? Clearly its a bad thing and shouldn’t happen, and it’s upsetting, but I would disagree that most people would be shocked if you told them “more than zero rapes happened this year”.

          • flicker@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            19
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            6 months ago

            1 out of every 6 women in America are survivors of attempted or completed rape. If you’re shocked someone tells you they’ve been raped, it’s because they’re brave enough to say it, not because it’s statistically unlikely.

        • HeadfullofSoup@kbin.earth
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          6 months ago

          And that just rape how much “keep it in the family” and “keep the blood pure” kind of people exist ? With the expansion of far right everywhere ( and yes i always see Far right people as inbred moron ) i would say a lot

          • MagicShel@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            11
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            6 months ago

            You’re overplaying your hand here. Parent/child incest implies rape if the child is underage. Adult sibling/underage sibling implies rape. But incest of siblings who are similar age (whether adult or child) doesn’t necessarily imply rape. Even incest of a parent and their adult child doesn’t imply rape.

            Statistically I’d bet this is predominantly rape and you are largely correct, but by saying incest = rape you’ve overstepped a bit.

          • Worx@lemmynsfw.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            6 months ago

            Expanding on MagicShel’s comment: imagine two siblings who were put up for adoption at birth. When they grow up, they meet each other, fall in love, have babies without realising they are siblings. Who raped whom in this example?

            • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              6
              ·
              6 months ago

              Expanding on my previous comment - imagine investing time and energy in creating far fetched examples to somehow make incest “ok”, but instead just outing yourself as someone who isn’t.

              • Custoslibera@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                7
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                6 months ago

                There are several examples of brothers and sisters who were adopted to separate families then become couples later in life unknowingly.

                Just google it.

                • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  7
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  6 months ago

                  It really is incredible and quite disgusting how many of you creeps are piping up in defence of incest…

              • Worx@lemmynsfw.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                4
                ·
                6 months ago

                You implied that all incest is a result of rape. I only have to provide one example to prove you wrong.

                You are wrong; I win

    • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      And this number is just a floor: It reflects only the cases that resulted in pregnancy, that did not end in miscarriage or abortion, and that led to the birth of a child who grew into an adult who volunteered for a research study.

      Meaning that this could be an indication of a wider incest…problem?..trend?..idk…

      Edit: it was literally the next sentence…