Why Inbreeding Isn 't As Bad As You Think

Obesity has been a growing problem in the U.S. for more than a decade. Various reasons and theories are thrown around as to the cause of this severe problem by psychologists, dietitians, and professors trying to pinpoint a single cause. Due to America’s vast supply of resources, luxurious living standards, and moral of the country, there is no one cause for obesity contrary to advertisements offering a quick-fix drug. America’s obesity problem is rooted much deeper than just cheap fast food and poor choices. Medical conditions, influence of genes, unhealthy lifestyles, and mental illnesses are all contributors towards obesity in any one person. Obesity is a serious problem in America with multiple contributors and one lone solution

Obesity within adults is a prevalent problem in the United States, with over 51% of all adults suffering from obesity by the year 2030 (Joyner et al. 217). Obesity, or the state of being excessively overweight, is sometimes a result from what is known as food addiction. Much like an addiction to a substance, to be addicted to food is to constantly crave a certain food item (Joyner et al. 217). Obesity and food addiction tend to coincide with each other. That coexistence is shown primarily in the documentary Super Size Me, in which director Morgan Spurlock focuses on the way fast food and food addiction affect the human body.

“Obesity is a disease that affects more than one-third of the U.S adult population (approximately 78.6 million Americans). The number of Americans with obesity had steadily increase since 1960, a trend that has slowed down in recent years but show no sign of reversing”.

Picture a young couple in a waiting room looking through a catalogue together. This catalogue is a little different from what you might expect. In this catalogue, specific traits for babies are being sold to couples to help them create the "perfect baby." This may seem like a bizarre scenario, but it may not be too far off in the future. Designing babies using genetic enhancement is an issue that is gaining more and more attention in the news. This controversial issue, once thought to be only possible in the realm of science-fiction, is causing people to discuss the moral issues surrounding genetic enhancement and germ line engineering. Though genetic research can prove beneficial to learning how to prevent hereditary

According to the USDA, at the start of century 21st American people have increased their daily caloric intake by consuming five hundred calories more than in 1970. As cited by Whitney & Rolfes (2011), there are many recognized causes of obesity such as genetics, environment, culture, socioeconomic, and metabolism among others; but the cause most evident

I support the guidelines outlined by Kitcher for the use of genetic information because of their responsible and ethical nature. I believe that future generations will benefit as a direct consequence of these guidelines. I shall begin by defining eugenics as the study of human genetics to improve inherited characteristics of the human race by the means of controlled selective breeding.

Eugenics is a taboo science, but back in 1883 it was a modern advancement, discovered by Francis Galton (Carlson). Galton’s original mission was to improve humanity by encouraging the best and healthiest couples to simply have more children; Galton created positive eugenics (Carlson). However, with the positive comes the inevitable negative. Negative Eugenics was more set on preventing the least able from reproducing, in order to preserve the fitness of the

Day was Henrietta’s cousin. They lived together on a tobacco plantation with Tommy Lacks. When two related individuals, such as cousins, have children there is an increased chance for genetic disorders. The chances for genetic disorders for related parents have been mentioned to be around 5% (3% for non-related parents). The reason is that most of these diseases are recessive. If one family has numerous carriers for a genetic recessive disease, and an individual possesses the recessive copy of the allele and marries someone who is not related to them (assuming that they do not also have the recessive allele for the

Sir Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin, was a British Eugenics professional. His ideology was that Eugenics should be used to keep the “Survival of the Fittest” going. Defects are passed down through generation after generation by means of defective genetics (“Forced Sterilization”). People believed plant and animal genes can be improved through Natural Selection, they believe the same could be done with humans. The reproduction of the considered unfit was too high compared to that of the fit reproduction. Contamination might be caused by imbeciles in the human race. If not cut from reproduction they could lower the “quality” of the race. Western and North

     Obesity is the net result of an excess of energy consumption over expenditure. Factors that must be considered as contributing to causation are: heredity, and altered metabolism of adipose tissue, the list goes on and on. Overeating is clearly a prominent contributor to obesity. Feeding behavior occurs in response to hunger and to appetite induced by the presence of food.

Let’s retrace this article’s path. There exist distinctions between disease traits and other – e.g., culturally-influenced – traits. The value of culturally-influenced traits change; thus, parents cannot always be morally obligated to “what [they] have the most reason to do” when selecting children, because what is most reasonable in one time/place can be morally abhorrent in another. It is also problematic to claim that people should recognize and implement social institutional reform, instead of genetic selection, when social institutional problems are present – history points to the implausibility of this suggestion. Finally, allowing unfettered, private genetic selection is likely to lead to adverse or unknown outcomes: a) It could lead to the selection of traits that are by no justifiable means ‘best,’ traits that drive homogenization, or both; and b) New genetic technologies have the potential to permit near-unlimited manipulations, the implications of which we don’t know, and thus, cannot allow

Adult obesity is a serious health issue to address. It can result from genetics or behaviors including dietary patterns and level of physical activity. “Additional contributing factors in our society include the food and physical activity environment, education and skills, and food marketing and promotion” ("Adult Obesity Causes & Consequences," 2017).

The definition of eugenics is to breed out undesirable traits. Based off of Austrian scientist Gregor Mendel’s studies, eugenics is accomplished through selective breeding. Dominant traits would replace recessive traits and the law of dominance would be ineffective. Originally, the idea behind eugenics was not completely bad. Over time though, problems surrounding it have been found. Dealing with positive and negative traits, questions have been asked about what constitutes as a negative trait and who decides which traits are

Contrary to belief, obesity has no clearly defined solution. Many believe that it is a chosen lifestyle and that by just exercising more and eating healthier the problem will be solved. This false mindset is at the core of the problem as portrayed in “the iceberg model” and addresses just the “tip of the iceberg”. There is in fact a “bigger picture” at play. Other characteristics on an individual level like physiological and psychological factors are also a major influence.

Available data suggest that stillborn rates are either similar or slightly higher among consanguineous couples than the non-related couples. Consanguinity and postnatal mortality. There is a positive association between parental. Consanguinity and increased infant and childhood mortality. Compiled data from 38 populations (600000 pregnancies) gave a 4.4% increased prereproductive mortality above background risk for offspring of first cousin unions. (Bittles and Neel, 1994).Generally speaking, frequency of congenital malformations among newborns of first cousin unions is about 2 times the frequency among the general population, i.e. about 4-6%. Another estimate puts the offspring of first cousin unions at a 1.7-2.8% increased risk above the population background risk (Bennett et al., 2002). Many studies have shown a positive association between parental consanguinity and congenital heart defects. The association of consanguinity with cleft lip and palate, and neural tube defects is not clear. In our study, we have seen a unexpected higher rate of sudden infant death, which is