Marriage is partly about the fitness of the father of your children. Some health problems are worse than others, and can be passed along with more drastic consequences. Sure, we’re all going to die some day but prudence should guide one into seriously deliberating about marrying a person with a known family history of severe diabetes, heart disease at a young age, certain forms of cancer, the male-linked genetic form of alcoholism, certain genetic diseases – i.e., crippling or life-limiting conditions for which there is little or no treatment.
Asthma, these days, is marvellously treatable. My spouse used to have frequent life-threatening attacks and use his machine 3 times a day. With newer medication, he has been almost completely asymptomatic for 5 years. As I said, some conditions have more severe consequences than others.
For example, if I knew my daughter were thinking of marrying somebody with a family history of von Hippel Lindau syndrome, I would urge genetic testing of that man and if he showed positive for the gene, I would do everything in my power to convince her not to marry him. It’s one thing to stick with a spouse “in sickness and in health,” but quite another to walk into a catastrophe with your eyes wide open and hold future generations hostage to it.
It has been shown that both men and women are attracted to people who are good looking and smart. Yeah, it’s a Darwinian thing.
