A documentary that revealed the most inbred family in the country rocked America this week — shining a light on the taboo practice still quietly being practiced in remote parts of the nation.
The Whittaker family, from Odd, West Virginia, are so inbred that many members have clear mental disabilities and cannot properly speak. Danny Ray Whittaker, who goes by Ray, can only communicate via grunts and barks.
While information about the secluded family is limited, it is speculated that he is suffering from non-verbal, level three autism.
The siblings filmed for the documentary were born from first cousins whose fathers were twins.
One of the twins had also married his own cousin, further increasing the risk. Through multiple generations of inbreeding, the family is now four-times as likely to suffer rare genetic disorders.
In a 2015 paper, Dr Alex Prayson of the National Council on Rehabilitation Education wrote that marriage between close relatives increases a person's risk of inheriting DNA that causes autism or other issues.
'Both autism and inbred disorders may have similar abnormalities of the brain structure and/or function,' Dr Prayson wrote in his paper submitted to The Social Science Research Network.
'Brain scans of these both children show variances in the shape and structure of the brain when compared with the neurotypical or normal brain found in children.'
While Ray is non-verbal, he is still attentive and responds to questions while being interviewed by Soft White Underbelly in recent years.
He would respond to questions from the interviewer with grunts, barks, nods and points.
Disclaimer: This is part of a story originally published on The Daily Mail. To read more click here.