Inbreeding Among Siblings: A Historical Legacy of Pain and Suffering

Highly recommended documentary about inbreeding: Inbred Family-The Whittakers from Soft White Underbelly In the grand tapestry of human history, threaded with the rise and fall of empires, the birth and death of civilizations, one peculiar practice has woven its sinister strand through the ages: inbreeding. From the royal houses of Europe to the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt, the corridors of power have echoed with this disturbing melody. But what were the ramifications of this practice and how did it shape the course of history? Consider Charles II of Spain, the unfortunate product of Habsburg inbreeding, whose litany of health problems and impotence led to the end of a dynasty in the late 17th century. Or take the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, like Tutankhamun, who was the result of a brother-sister union, and was plagued by physical deformities and health issues. But why, you might ask, did these influential figures indulge in a practice we now know to be b