Rockbird the number of conditions they can test for is very limited compared to the number of mutations that can occur. So whilst they can rule some things out, they can't rule everything out.
But yes, obviously in a family where generations have been intermarrying for many years it gets to be a smaller and smaller gene pool.
I watched it. It made me sad, angry, and hopeful. Sad because so many families are living under these burdens, and so many children born into suffering. Angry at those in positions of leadership within those communities who fail to heed the evidence. And hopeful that someone is at least speaking out. I used to work in a related field in an area with a high proportion of families in whose tradition marrying cousins was fine - many of those children had such awful problems; it was something that we all knew the cause of unofficially but no-one dared speak about officially.
I am thankful for that Muslim preacher they had on there who was speaking out about it in his congregation and whose own family had suffered - I hope someone somewhere with some clout saw him and snaps him up to do some national education.
Oh I really disagreed with the doctor saying the best way was to target families for genetic counselling rather than a public education campaign. Surely you need both? You need to work with the families where cousins are already married, to try and minimise their risk (but see above, you can only minimise it) but you surely also at some point need to try and educate the future generations, to turn the tide of this longer term?
(Oh. And lastly, withdrawing benefits would do nothing, except increase these children's and families' suffering)