Can you marry your cousin in Finland?

Marriages between two persons of the same sex are also allowed in Finland. According to Finnish law, close relatives are not allowed to get married. Marriage is always a voluntary choice, and no one can be pressured or forced into it.

What diseases are common in Finland?

The major causes of deaths in Finland are cardiovascular diseases, malignant tumors, dementia and alzheimers disease, respiratory diseases, alcohol related diseases and accidental poisoning by alcohol.

Is Finnish a heritage?

The culture of Finland combines indigenous heritage, as represented for example by the country’s national languages Finnish (a Uralic language) and Swedish (a Germanic language), the sauna, with common Nordic and European cultural aspects.

Are Finnish inbred?

More simply, it means that the eastern Finns today are a relatively inbred population, made up of people with an unusually homogeneous array of genetic traits. What is unusual is that this genetic homogeneity was maintained for centuries simply because so few people migrated into the region.

What are the chances of inheriting Finnish heritage disease?

Finnish heritage disease. Most of the gene defects are autosomal recessives, so that if both the mother and father carry the same defect, the chance that their child will have the associated disease is 1 in 4. The molecular genetics of many of these diseases have been determined, enabling genetic testing, prenatal testing, and counseling.

How much does inbreeding increase with random mating?

Inbreeding in an effective population of size (Ne) increases at a rate of 1/ (2 Ne ), per generation with random mating. For example, in an effective population of size 10, there is a 5\% increase in inbreeding per generation. Consequently, small, isolated populations that have existed for many generations are expected to show inbreeding depression.

What is the prevalence of genetic diseases in Finland?

The majority of genetic diseases reported in Finland are not part of the Finnish disease heritage and their prevalence is not higher in Finland than worldwide. Some genetic diseases are disproportionately rare in Finns. These include cystic fibrosis and phenylketonuria.

Is inbreeding a serious problem in a population?

Therefore, inbreeding is rare in typically outbreeding populations but becomes a serious problem in small isolated populations. In small fragmented populations in nature and in captive populations, inbreeding depression can threaten population viability.