Davide Serpico, były pracownik projektu BIOUNCERTAINTY, opublikował wspólnie z Joanną Malinowską nowy artykuł: “Epistemological Pitfalls in the Proxy Theory of Race: The Case of Genomics-Based Medicine” w czasopiśmie The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.

Abstrakt

In this article, we discuss epistemological limitations relating to the use of ethno-racial categories  in  biomedical  research  as  devised  by  the  US  government’s  Office  of  Management  and Budget’s institutional guidelines. We argue that the obligation to use ethno-racial categories in genomics  research  should  be abandoned.  First,  we  outline  how  conceptual  imprecision  in  the definition of ethno-racial categories can generate epistemic uncertainty in medical research and practice. Second, we focus on the use of ethno-racial categories in medical genetics, particularly genomics-based precision medicine, where ethno-racial identity is understood as a proxy for medically  relevant  differences  among individuals.  Notably, extensive criticisms  have  been made already against  the  genetic  interpretation  of  races,  but,  nonetheless,  the  concept  of race remains  a  key element  of contemporary  genomics. This  motivates  us  to explore  possible  rea-sons why such criticisms may have been ineffective in redirecting attention to other (non-race-based)  ways of  controlling  for  human  variability. We  contend  that  popular  arguments  against the idea that human races have a genetic basis, though convincing in many respects, are not sufficient to exclude the pragmatic use of race and ethnicity as proxies for genetic variability related  to  complex  phenotypes.  Finally,  we  provide  two  further  arguments  to  support  the  idea  that ethno-racial categories are unlikely to provide meaningful insights into medical genetics, which implies that even the interpretation of race as a useful tool to stratify disease risk is unwarranted.

Link do artykułu

Malinowska, J. K., & Serpico, D. (2023). Epistemological Pitfalls in the Proxy Theory of Race: The Case of Genomics-Based Medicine. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. https://doi.org/10.1086/727957