Originally Posted By: belMarduk
got married in Puerto Rico. One of the prerequists for getting a marriage license was a test that would look for gonorrhea, syphilis, familial relatives, and, wait for it...idiocy.

Idiocy was a "correct" medical/legal term in the past (for example, what is now called Bennett disease was “juvenile amaurotic idiocy"). Syphilitic idiocy was a possible result of syphilis. The 1870 US Census form has a column labelled "Whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane, or idiotic."

Unless there's some non-genetic test for consanguinity, I'd imagine a test to determine "familial relatives" would turn up all sorts of interesting things.

Googling, I can't find that anything that says Puerto Rico currently requires more than a VDRL (syphilis) test. Most states no longer require any blood test at all.