Word: flds
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...prophet of the YFZ ranch is himself in prison. For several years, Jeffs, head of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), directed his flock and arranged "celestial marriages" (no man with fewer than three wives can attain the Kingdom of God, the FLDS believes) as a fugitive from the law. But he was arrested in 2006 in Las Vegas and convicted last year in St. George, Utah--not on polygamy charges, which have been difficult to prosecute in court, but on charges of being an accomplice to rape after commanding an underage follower to marry an older...
...Jessops and the Barlows, settled the area around Hildale, Utah, along the border with Arizona, where they founded the FDLS - and began handing down to their descendants a recessive gene for a severe form of mental retardation called Fumarase Deficiency. The birth defect has become increasingly prevalent within the FLDS community since 1990 when it was first identified by Dr. Theodore Tarby, an Arizona pediatric neurologist, now retired but formerly with the Children's Rehabilitative Services in Phoenix. He saw his first case when an FLDS mother brought her severely retarded son to see him. Tarby asked the mother whether...
...grand mal seizures and encephalitis. Language skills are nonexistent or minimal. "I remember one little girl has a fascination with coins and the only word she could say was 'money,'" the doctor said. Families whose children are affected often avail themselves of state-funded medical care, consistent with the FLDS philosophy of seeking government aid - despite their suspicion of government - which they call "bleeding the Beast...
Until 1990 Tarby says he knew of only 13 cases of Fumarase Deficiency worldwide. Since, it has taken hold in the FLDS community because of intermarriage. "If you have two parents with the gene," Tarby says, "you are going to have a one-in-four chance of having a child afflicted with it." Depending on the severity of the disorder, children may die in childhood or may survive into early adulthood; if a person who has developed the disorder goes on to have a child, his or her chances of passing it on are one in two. But diagnosing...
...FLDS community, by and large, rejects the idea that Fumarase Deficiency is caused by genes, according to Tarby. "They have their mythology about the condition. They think it's something in the water, or something in the air," he says. Before Tarby retired in 2007, FLDS leaders invited him to address the community about the disorder and how to prevent it. He told them that prevention would involve barring marriages between people with the recessive gene, or asking those couples to forgo children. He suggested that families discontinue having children once the disorder presents itself, or test for the gene...