Open AccessRacial and Ethnic Categories in Biomedical Research: There is no Baby in the Bathwater
Author(s) -
Cho Mildred K.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the journal of law, medicine & ethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1748-720X
pISSN - 1073-1105
DOI - 10.1111/j.1748-720x.2006.00061.x
Subject(s) - plea , ethnic group , argument (complex analysis) , race (biology) , medical diagnosis , psychology , criminology , sociology , social psychology , public relations , political science , medicine , law , gender studies , pathology
The use of racial categories in biomedicine has had a long history in the United States. However, social hierarchy and discrimination, justified by purported scientific differences, has also plagued the history of racial categories. Because “race” has some correlation with biological and genetic characteristics, there has been a call not to “throw the baby out with the bathwater” by eliminating race as a research or clinical category. I argue that race is too undefined and fluid to be useful as a proxy for biology or genetics.