Legal Regulation of the Use of Race in Medical Research

Lillquist, Erik; Sullivan, Charles A.

doi:10.1111/j.1748-720x.2006.00067.x

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Finally, although the topic is outside the scope of the present review, it is important for clinicians and scientists to be aware of the ethical issues associated with genetic research and its contemporary realizations. 79,80 …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetics of Cardiovascular Diseases

Cambien

Tiret

2007

Circulation

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When the search for genes that predispose to cardiovascular diseases (CVD) started Ͼ20 years ago, it was anticipated that genetic polymorphisms might be analogous to the already known CVD risk factors and could be incorporated in a risk model such as the Framingham score 1 to assess the risk of an individual and adopt preventive or therapeutic measures accordingly. However, despite years of intensive research, not a single genetic risk factor is used for risk assessment. The new strategy of genome-wide association (GWA) studies (for example, see http://www.wtccc. org.uk/) coupled with the availability of very large cohorts of patients 2 is starting to reveal novel genetic factors that contribute to disease risk. Whether these variants will be clinically more useful than those that were derived from the study of candidate genes still needs to be demonstrated. As time passes, the interest for genetic research on common CVD moves progressively from the direct expectation of risk stratification to the more fundamental understanding of disease origins and pathophysiology and their indirect diagnostic and therapeutic implications.The objective of the present review is not to provide an exhaustive account of the numerous studies conducted on the genetics of CVD (eg, Arnett et al 3 ), but to introduce a few basic notions required to understand the language of genetics and genomics (see Appendix) and illustrate with a limited number of examples the important insights provided by genetic research into the causes and mechanisms of CVD. We will also discuss the new GWA strategy and why this approach is likely to have a considerable impact on biomedicine and human disease understanding. Finally, we will try to explain the unsuccessful search for genetic markers of risk and why phenotypic biomarkers are likely to be clinically more useful.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetics of Cardiovascular Diseases

Cambien

Tiret

2007

Circulation

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“…17 One form of genetic drift, known as the founder effect, occurs when a population originates from a small set of ancestors and maintains a random mutation through inbreeding because of voluntary or forced isolation. 18 This mechanism helps explain, for example, the high incidence of the Tay-Sachs gene among Ashkenazi Jews 19 and the virtual absence of the B blood type among Native Americans. 20 Another form of genetic drift, known as the bottleneck effect, occurs when a catastrophic event, such as famine, war, or an epidemic, wipes out a large portion of the population, thereby changing the composition of the gene pool that will serve as the source of repopulation.…”

Section: Behavioral Genetics Research and "Discrete And Insular MImentioning

confidence: 99%

The Scarlet Gene: Behavioral Genetics, Criminal Law, and Racial and Ethnic Stigma

Rothenberg¹,

Wang²

2009

The Impact of Behavioral Sciences on Criminal Law

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This chapter contains six parts. Part I summarizes the Genes on Trial program and introduces the issues raised by it. Part II explains why behavioral genetics research tends to focus on discrete and insular populations that overlap with socially constructed racial or ethnic groups. Part III locates behavioral genetics research on a spectrum spanning from single-gene disorders to complex behavioral traits, positing that the behavioral end of the spectrum carries the most potential for stigma. Part IV explores how the blame-shifting mechanisms of genetic reductionism and genetic determinism affect the individual, family, community, and society when genetics research focuses on criminal or antisocial behavior. Part V analyzes how racial and ethnic stigma arise from behavioral genetics research and perpetuate inequality. Part VI concludes by considering the ethical dilemmas that geneticists face when choosing who and what to study.

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“…Still, the potential for ratifying specious negative images of members of the so-called “population groups”, and for fomenting the inaccurate and dangerous notion that racial labels denote biologically distinct groups, remains unresolved. Researchers are encouraged to “be careful” in the language they choose for reporting their findings, to avoid over-generalisations,1 – 3 while more concrete principles and policies for the management of these complex issues have yet to developed and implemented 4 5…”

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confidence: 99%