Ian Gibson, a former chairman of the Commons Science and Technology Committee, has apologized if he offended anyone with the comments he made earlier suggesting that the cause in increased childhood diabetes cases diagnosed in his Norfolk constituency could be the result of residents inbreeding. "I would imagine it is linked to the fact that people in Norfolk are quite inbred, with many not leaving the county," Dr. Gibson, Labour MP for Norwich North, told his local newspaper, the Norwich Evening News. "It is something that needs to be looked at as a priority, especially as many cases are linked to obesity too."
Diabetes experts have come forward to call his suggestion disgraceful, inappropriate and wrong. Genetics do not work that way and to even suggest that diabetes is linked to inbreeding is an insult to people with type 1 diabetes and their families and it's an insult to people in Norfolk. That's an understatement.
I don't think Dr. Gibson can use being drunk as an excuse for his outrageous remarks, and he clearly isn't apologizing for what he said -- only to anyone that might be offended by the comments. That could be six billion people minus one.
