Does ancestry play a part in magical ability? was: The permanent prob. with Slyt

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 99377

Mandy here:
<snip>
Do the children of two Magical parents have an advantage? If they do
then selection based on blood purity has validity and merit. 

Neri:
This idea is a common mistake, regardless of the moral issues. Even 
when you purposely breed in order to get some desired ability, 
inbreeding within a small population won't get you there. It makes 
the DNA from the mother and from the father become very similar to 
each other, which invariably cause recessive genes to raise their 
ugly heads, and you get a lot of defects. This is why crossbreeds are 
often stronger and healthier than both pure-blood parents. When 
people want to breed animals for ability, such as faster horses or 
cows with more milk (as opposed to show animals that are only 
supposed to conform to some "ideal" model) they are constantly 
bringing in new blood into the lineage, or they quickly arrive at a 
dead end.

Neri