A documentary revealing the country’s most inbred family rocked America this week, highlighting the taboo practice still practiced quietly in remote parts of the country.
The Whittaker family, from Odd, West Virginia, is so inbred that many members are clearly mentally retarded and unable to speak properly. One member, Danny Ray Whittaker, whose name is Ray, can only communicate through growls and barks.
While information about the secluded family is limited, it is speculated that he suffers from a neurological condition such as non-verbal autism.
The siblings filmed for the documentary were born to cousins whose fathers were twins. One of the twins was also married to his own cousin, adding to the risk. Through several generations of inbreeding, the family is now four times more likely to have rare genetic disorders.
Danny Ray Whittaker (center, in red), whose name is Ray, communicates only through growls, barks, and other physical movements. He can’t talk
Ray (pictured) is part of the infamous inbred Whittaker family. Although he cannot speak, during the interview he shows signs of being able to understand and respond to speech
In a newspaper from 2015wrote dr. Alex Prayson of the National Council on Rehabilitation Education that marriage between close relatives increases the risk that a person will inherit DNA that causes autism or other problems.
“Both autism and inbreeding disorders may have similar abnormalities of brain structure and/or function,” Dr. Prayson wrote in his paper submitted to The Social Science Research Network.
“Brain scans from both of these children show abnormalities in the shape and structure of the brain compared to the neurotypical or normal brain found in children.”
Although Ray is non-verbal, he is still attentive and responds to questions while he is interviewed by Soft White Underbelly during the past years.
He answered questions from the interviewer with grunts, barks, nods, and points.
While his answers are uncertain, some make it clear that he understands what he is being asked and the correct answer despite his inability to speak.
For example, when Ray is asked what he eats, he shows the interviewer his sandwich. When asked about his dead brother Freddy, he grunts and points to his grave near the house.
It’s unclear if Ray ever received a formal diagnosis for this condition, but his symptoms seem consistent with severe nonverbal autism.
While many autistic children are nonverbal, a majority will eventually develop speech. In rare cases, a person remains nonverbal into adulthood. These cases represent just a handful of autism cases in the US.
In a function called “stimming,” many people who suffer from conditions such as autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder make abrupt movements or loud noises to stimulate their senses.
This may include barking, growling, head banging, nail chewing, and other unusual actions.
Experts say the actions help a person express and control their emotions when they are overstimulated or unable to do so properly, such as when a person cannot verbally communicate their response and is forced to use gestures and sounds.
Scientists have not pinpointed the exact cause of autism as they believe it is a mix of genetic and environmental factors.
A landmark study in 2020 established the strongest link between the condition and genetics.
Led by researchers at Yale Universityscientists collected genetic data from 35,000 people and identified 102 genes that increase a person’s risk of autism.
Previously, only 65 genes were linked to the condition. Among the newly discovered genes were 30 that had never before been associated with a developmental disorder.
‘Many play a role in the neural connections of the brain. The rest are primarily involved in turning other genes on and off in brain development,” Dr. Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health, wrote of the findings.
He continued, “With these gene discoveries in hand, the researchers are now turning their attention to unraveling additional details about how these genes function in the brain.”
A human being is born with 20,000 to 25,000 genes. At conception, they receive half from their mother and half from their father.
These genes are located in a person’s chromosomes, proteins found in the nucleus of the body’s cells.
The majority of people are born with 23 pairs of chromosomes, with each duo receiving one from each parent.
Dr. Prayson explained that inbreeding increases a person’s risk of getting genes that lead to conditions like autism.
He continued: ‘Inbreeding is considered a problem in humans because it increases the chance of getting a damaged chromosome inherited from a common ancestor.
“The act of incest does not cause birth defects. Crossbreeding increases the chance that a child will be born with a double dose of one or more recessive genetic problems that can cause birth defects.’
About two percent of Americans are on the autism spectrum, and an estimated one-third of that group suffer from severe autism.
The Whittakers are America’s most inbred family brought to light by filmmaker Mark Laita in his 12 minute short film ‘Inbred Family-The Whittakers’. Pictured: The Whittakers
Laita’s video revealed that the family was unaware that their genetic problems were a result of inbreeding. They also could not remember much about their parents or other relatives
Essentially, this means that an estimated seven out of every 1,000 Americans suffer from the condition.
If the condition is genetic, as Dr. Prayson and the Yale researchers believe, then the genes responsible for it are relatively rare and infrequently expressed.
But if two members of the same family with a similar genetic makeup have a child, the risk of passing on a rare genetic disorder to their children increases.
This is caused by the ‘coefficient of inbreeding’, where incestuous relationships increase the chance that a person will develop some kind of health problem.
In a person’s DNA, there are alleles, sequences within a person’s strands that they inherit from their mother or father.
Alleles can be dominant or recessive. A dominant allele produces a dominant physical trait in individuals who have one copy of the allele, which can come from only one parent.
For example, the allele for brown eyes is dominant, so one only needs one copy of the allele “brown eyes” to have brown eyes.
For traits to come from the recessive gene, both genes must be recessive. For example, the gene for blue eyes is recessive, so to have blue eyes one must have two copies of the ‘blue eyes’ gene from each parent.
The risk of two strangers passing on a recessive genetic disorder to their offspring is low.
But when two blood relatives marry, the risk of passing on that recessive gene is exponentially higher.
Rare genetic defects are almost always caused by a combination of recessive genes, so inbreeding increases their risk.
Twin brothers Henry and John Whittaker fueled the family’s incest, with their two children marrying and having 15 children of their own
This applies not only to autism, but also to genetic abnormalities such as being born with extra fingers or toes, or developing psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia or borderline personality disorder.
For Ray, the coefficient is much higher than normal after repeated inbreeding in his pedigree.
The man is the son of Gracie and John Whittaker, cousins who are both children of twins John and Henry Whittaker.
John himself had an incestuous relationship and married his cousin Ada Riggs.
The couple had 15 children, one of whom clearly has an intellectual disability.
The other members of the family live in poverty in Odd.
According to what they told the filmmaker, the Whittakers didn’t seem to know that their genetic problems were the result of inbreeding.
They also could not remember much about their parents or other relatives.
In a scene in his short documentary, Mr. Laita asked Betty Whittaker why she thought her family had so many anomalies, but she said she didn’t know.
Laita pushed on with Kenneth, specifically asking why their eyes weren’t facing forward. Kenneth replied, “Maybe coal mining.”