Charles Darwin: 3 of his children died before age 10

Where do you think he got the idea that those with bad genetics had family lines that died off?

Dang he was an anti-vaxer too?

He practiced what he preached

Funnfacts time: Darwin was in his late 50’s by the time genes were even discovered. Darwin did marry a first cousin. That wasn’t too uncommon. Einstein married his first cousin as well- FDR’s wife Eleanor? She didn’t even have to change her last name when they got married. She was already a Roosevelt. In fact, right up until the civil war cousin marrying was an accepted practice through much of history. In fact- even today in America the average marriage is between 7th cousins. But let’s look at the facts. A parent and child share about 50% DNA. First cousins share about 12%. The odds of a birth defect in a baby between first cousins is about 4-7% vs 3-4% in a less closely genetically related couple. The danger is that related people’s genes lack diversity, so bad genes will be copied which almost ensures that particular gene will fail in the offspring vs a genetically diverse mate who will provide a chance to pass a non affected copy of the “bad” gene.