Should we interbreed with our family members?

Originally Posted by Devo

Inbreeding in the Royal Families doesn't have to do with any sort of "purity", it has to do with economics. In order to keep power and wealth within the same small group of people they married cousins.

To quote the Queen, she supported inbreeding to keep the blood line pure, not just for wealth.

Quote:

Her feelings about the necessity of revitalizing what she called the “lymphatic” blood of their houses are reflected in her letter to her daughter Vicky: “I do wish one could find some more black eyed Princes and Princesses for our children! I can’t help thinking what dear Papa said—that it was in fact when there was some little imperfection in the pure Royal descent that some fresh blood was infused… For that constant fair hair and blue eyes makes the blood so lymphatic… it is not as trivial as you may think, for darling Papa—often with vehemence said: ‘We must have some strong blood.’”

But that being said, inbreeding pretty much wiped out a couple generations of European royalty. Queen Victoria was a recessive carrier for hemophilia and her kids had it and with the push for marrying into the family for "pure blood", they went around and around to cousins in other countries until one day, all the males just bled to death. Like gukarma mentioned, they couldn't keep any male heir alive in Russia. Well until the revolution happened and the Bolsheviks took care of that problem for them.

So from a genetic standpoint, inbreeding would increase the likeihood of genetic disorders like Huntingtons, Sickle Cell, etc since family members would more likely to be carriers.

Jam it back in, in the dark.