Marriage Criteria

Marriage is a subject that has come up more than a few times over the years, since I turned 18, and what has caused me to bring it up now is the fact that soon my brothers and I will be the only ones in my family, who have hit and passed 'Marriageable Age', who remain to get hitched. Nearly all of my cousin's who tick that box are either married to each other or some other cousin in the family, and I refuse to marry a cousin who shares my blood - some of my cousin-brothers have been candidates for me despite this tenet, though those were suggested by their parents and not my mother. My mother knows my stance on intra-family marriage, and I will not compromise the health of any future children I may be lucky enough to have.

That being said, any child I do have will be screwed anyway since there's a high likelihood that they'll inherit my condition, and so I have resolved that I will pay any amount there is to ensure my child will be free of this gene. Yes, I'm talking about Genetically Engineering my child since Retinitis Pigmentosa is currently an incurable condition, despite rather excellent recent developments in trial therapies to partially restore sight that remain to be perfected. I do remain optimistic, however, that hopefully at some point a definite cure (or as good as) will come into existence and I may not have to go down that route. I'm all for Genetic Engineering when it has benefits in the long-term, but I know that just like with Plastic Surgery, it will become commercialised and Gattaca* will be that much closer to becoming reality.

Anyway, the main point of this post is to highlight a fear that I have - do I tell any possible marriage candidates the 'small-print' included with their purchase**, or keep schtum and act as surprised and devastated as they are when the symptoms get worse? Being an honest person, I suppose I would most likely tell them at the first instance. However, the rules would be different depending on who's doing the proposing; should it be a run-of-the-mill Arranged Marriage, then I'd tell them there and then with some tactful questioning leading up to it. If it's a boyfriend, then I may be inclined to tell them a little later on...perhaps if they began to see the relationship going long-term, but then they'd have developed feelings for me so may be more inclined to stick with me for a while so as not to seem like a prick...I haven't even told the majority of my friends yet, let alone a non-existent boyfriend! See, it's a tough subject to bring up...I wish there was an easier way to do this, but I figure that since my eyes are okay for now, then there's no point and I should only bring it up in the real problem areas, like going clubbing or to the cinema or to a platonic 'dinner-date'...