Question
My mother-in-law has some level of intellectual deficiency, and it’s said that it was due to family reasons in the past—she stayed at home all the time, never allowed to go out, wouldn’t spend money, and wouldn’t do anything she wasn’t asked to do. Now we want to have a child, but we’re worried that the baby might also have intellectual deficiency. Can intellectual deficiency be inherited across generations?
Answer
The causes of intellectual deficiency in children are complex and numerous:
- Genetic factors. For instance, if either or both parents have low intelligence, if there is consanguineous marriage among the parents, or if the parents have certain metabolic diseases, they may pass on congenital intellectual defects to their offspring, leading to intellectual deficiency in children. If one or both parents have intellectual deficiency, the incidence rate of intellectual deficiency in their children can be as high as 77% to 96%.
- Pathogenic factors during the mother’s pregnancy. The early stages of pregnancy, from eight to twelve weeks, are the critical period for fetal brain formation and development in the mother’s body. Various physical and chemical toxins, environmental hazards, radiation, smoke, alcohol, and viral infections can all be causative factors for poor fetal brain development.