Family tree bears bad fruit
 
Opinion
The Spectrum
 
The polygamous towns of Hildale and Colorado City have remained small, closed societies for generations. The reasons for this are obvious. The people fear both persecution and prosecution from the larger societies that surround them. However, it is now apparent that the residents of these border towns are paying a price for their insularity.

Because most of the 8,000 residents of these communities trace their lineage back to four founding members, and marriages within these family lines are common, the result has been a limited genetic pool, which as the laws of science decree, will lead to problems.

In the case of Hildale and Colorado City, the lack of diversity in the genetic pool has led to a very high occurrence of a rare disease called fumarase deficiency, a degenerative condition that causes disabilities such as mental retardation and muscle control problems. Only about 50 cases have been diagnosed on the entire planet, but as many as 20 have been diagnosed just in the two small polygamous towns. The abnormal concentration of cases results from people carrying the gene for the disease marrying other people who carry that gene.

Everyone is a gene carrier of some type of malady, but most people don't end up marrying someone with a genetic structure very similar to their own. Therein lies the problem for the polygamous communities.

People are entitled to live where they want and legally marry who they want. It would be difficult, if not unconstitutional, to force Hildale and Colorado City to expand their genetic diversity. However, the residents of these border towns may want to ask themselves, why aren't outsiders, particularly women, anxious to come be a part of their community? Why is it that much of the growth in the FLDS church appears to come from marrying off younger women who have grown up in the church to bear children with older men who aren't many branches away from their brides on the family tree?

In the past this newspaper has noted that beyond the practice of polygamy itself, which remains illegal under state law, other problems arise from the way polygamy is practiced in Hildale and Colorado City - men having sex with underage females, young men being banished from the communities, welfare fraud, financial problems in school districts and community property holdings. Now we can add genetic abnormalities to the list.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published March 2, 2006
 
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