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Science 18 February 2005:
Vol. 307. no. 5712, pp. 1050 - 1051
DOI: 10.1126/science.1110303
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Policy Forum

Also see the archival list of Science's Compass: Enhanced Perspectives

MEDICINE:
Enhanced: Race and Reification in Science

Troy Duster

The use of the concept of race in pharmacogenomics, forensics, and human molecular genetics continues apace, despite the imprecision of the category and the growing number of voices suggesting caution, and even a "sunset clause" for its continued deployment. The new technologies that can generate SNP patterns and profiles for any population have created an ever growing risk that racial categories will be mistakenly re-inscribed as "genetic." The author of this Policy Forum urges geneticists to counter this problem actively by the way they report their findings.

The author is director of the Institute for the History of the Production of Knowledge, New York University, 269 Mercer Street, New York, NY 10003-6687, USA. E-mail: troy.duster{at}nyu.edu

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