Genetic Problems Among The Amish(They need to increase the size of their gene pool)

frankiespeakin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eAJDQ_SgDk

They need some new dna introduced into their very closely related gene pool. I don't think many from the outside world are converting leaving a very narrow gene pool.

Perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea if some of these youths got pregnant durring Rumspringa(Amish Wilding durring youth) thus killing to birds with one stone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumspringa

Rumspringa ( IPA: [r?m'spr???] , Pennsylvania Dutch: [r?m'?pr???] ), also spelled Rumschpringe or Rumshpringa, is a period of adolescence for some members of the Amish community during which a youth temporarily leaves the community to experience life in the outside world. The Amish, a subsect of the Anabaptist Christian movement, intentionally segregate themselves from other communities as a part of their faith. The Rumspringa normally begins around the age of 14 to 16 and ends when a youth chooses baptism within the Amish church or instead leaves the community. [ 1 ] :10–11 The vast majority choose baptism and remain in the church. Not all Amish use this term (it does not occur in John Hostetler's extended discussion of adolescence among the Amish), but in sects that do, Amish elders generally view it as a time for courtship and finding a spouse. [ 1 ] :14

mrsjones5

Hm, 'A Boy and His Dog' just popped in my mind.

frankiespeakin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnwp5OAaK8I

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

"It's up to God." "Trust in God."

God sure doesn't seem to give a rat's ass about their kids being handicapped and dying young.

LisaRose

Really sad that they can build a clinic and allow electricity to keep these chikdren alive, but can do nothing to change the problem, which is entirely in their control. At the least all Amish couple should get genetic testing before they get married. Really, they should stop marrying each other, but that won't happen.

Phizzy

The inter-marriage in JW's is pretty rife, my kids described it as "incestuous" which was funny, but eventually JW's could begin to have similar problems as new converts become a rarity.

wha happened?

That's an interesing point. Eventually, like the Amish, the sell in converts will disappear. Then your stuck with a small gene pool. Nothing like marrying your ouwn cousin/uncle/BIL.

frankiespeakin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_bottleneck

A population bottleneck is a sharp reduction in size of a population due to environmental stochastic events (such as earthquakes, floods, fires, or droughts) or human activities. Such events are able to reduce the variation in the genepool of a population drastically, because when the population was close to extinction, the few left passed on those genes to their offspring, which became mostly dominant over the generations. If there are not enough individuals left, or the ones that survived are not able to reproduce sufficiently to re-form the species population, that population may go extinct. [ 1 ] In consequence of such population size reductions and the loss of genetic variation, the ability of a population to adapt to prevalent environment or selection like climatic change or shift in available resources is reduced. However, depending upon the causes of the bottleneck, the survivors may have been the most fit individuals, hence improving the traits within the gene pool while shrinking it. This genetic drift can change the proportional distribution of an allele by chance and even lead to fixation or loss of alleles. Due to the smaller population size after a bottleneck event, the chance of inbreeding and genetic homogeneity increases and unfavoured alleles can accumulate. Thus, an ecological bottleneck can lead to a genetic bottleneck, in which the genetic variation within a population and the potential to adapt to a changing environment decrease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIlWKp44T50

Phizzy

Mind you, there is a lot to be said for it, after all, "the family that lays together stays together".

Paralipomenon

When the show "Breaking Amish" came out I noticed a fair number of those interviewed were adopted.

I researched it and discovered that adoption among the Amish is quite common for the very reason of increasing the genetic diversity.

Genetic Problems Among The Amish(They need to increase the size of their gene pool)

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