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A legislative committee tomorrow will begin considering legislation to tighten up Utah's incest law. The hearing was prompted by three sons of a prominent southern Utah fundamentalist whose accusations against their father were first reported on KSL.
According to his sons, Ross LeBaron has fathered at least four children with his own daughters, preaching that incest preserves the purity of his royal bloodline from Jesus.
Dr. John Optiz, who founded the American Journal of Medical Genetics, said he finds that teaching "deplorable."
Opitz is an expert in the field of genetics, and decades ago did one of the first studies ever on children of incest. He examined 42 children whose parents were brother-sister or father-daughter. Over 10 years of monitoring, many died young.
"[I saw] deaths of children before the age of reproduction and ever-increasing incidence of deafness and blindness," Opitz said. "Over 50 percent were clearly and grossly abnormal."
It was worse than the 25 percent level predicted by genetic theory. A larger study behind the Iron Curtain confirmed it.
"[They] found dramatically increased infant mortality, rates of defects over 50 percent and at least a 25 percent rate of severe to profound mental retardation," Opitz explained.
A massive study of 300,000 births in early Utah revealed huge risks. "There is a dramatic increase in mortality, even in the offspring of first-cousin marriages," Opitz said.
Prosecutors abandoned a LeBaron investigation because the law requires proof of a sex act. Incest is not illegal if it's done, as LeBaron has claimed, through artificial insemination.
"I think the law must be changed," Opitz said.
The LeBaron brothers are trying to change laws in three states where their father spends time. The proposed change would allow conviction without proof of a sex act if there's DNA evidence of incest.
E-mail: jhollenhorst@ksl.com
