Abstract

GONZALEZ SORIANO, Fabricio  and  LOPEZ BELTRAN, Carlos. Consanguinity, Syphilis, Inheritance and Marriage: the Slow Emergence of Medical Intervention in Mexican Marriage Laws. Mem. Soc. [online]. 2009, vol.13, n.27, pp.87-100. ISSN 0122-5197.

The noun "heredity", in its biological sense, first circulated in France during the 1830s. During that century, heredity was linked to the pessimistic notion of degeneration, the control of which became a tool for the academic and political projects of French physicians to be included in those of the Nation. Something similar occurred in Mexico. After two generations of late 19^th and early 20^th centuries physicians, which incorporated the manipulation of heredity into their projects and questioned, just as their French colleagues, consanguineous marriages, medical supervision of every union -consanguineous or not- became compulsory within the civil marriage regulations, coinciding with the institutionalization of the Mexican eugenic movement. Even if they had moved from Europe to Mexico, notions of heredity, degeneration, consanguinity and eugenics were adjusted and justified according to the local situation and prevailing values of the Mexican society.

Keywords : Heredity; Degeneration; Consanguinity; Marriage; Civil Law; Consanguinity; Human Heredity; Civil Law.

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