Sun, 12 Jun 2005

U.S. to Review Heart Drug Intended for One Race

This strikes me as a grievous intervention by politics into science. The fact that we believe that all humanity needs be treated as political equals does not mean that we can ignore the simple fact that there are ethnic difference between human families. Do we routinely test Hispanics for sickle cell disease? Do we screen Swedes for Tay-Sachs?

Standing for equality before the law is one thing, denying that "races" exist is quite another. Whatever happened to "celebrating diversity"? Differences in cultural and biological heritage should be treated with delight, not approbation. To quote Malcolm X, "You can put a shoe in an oven but that doesn't make it a biscuit."

This looks like a promising drug for African-Americans, and I can only hope that it's approval is not derailed by politics.

A drug marketed to African-Americans has engendered controversy as scientists say that race is too ill-defined a category to be relevant in determining a drug's approval.

(link) [NYT > Home Page]

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