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Genetics and genomics are central to a growing number of emerging practices across arenas as diverse as medicine, criminology, special education, employment, and informatics. Two of the most salient of these issues will illustrate how genetic theories apply to concrete social problems.

Predictive Screening and Testing

Predictive screening and testing is perhaps the most tangible form genetics takes in the lives of individuals. These tests identify genetic mutations or information that is presumed to meaningfully predict a person's "risk" for disease. For example, pregnant women now routinely test their fetuses for various mutations and make deliberate decisions about which babies to have and not have. Women identified with the "breast cancer gene" (BRCA1 or 2) may increase the frequency of visits to doctors for screening, or they may have prophylactic mastectomies. Parents whose babies get positive newborn genetic screens may act to prevent, mediate, or even anticipate disease. Proponents argue that these tests illustrate the promise of the genetic revolution. Critics argue that both the accuracy of the tests and the availability of effective treatments or prevention strategies are highly questionable, as increased testing results primarily in greater numbers of people who think of themselves or their children as sick or deviant despite no manifest symptoms of disease. Further, critics contend, mass testing programs function not just as medical procedures but also as mechanisms for categorizing individuals (e.g., as "normal" or as "deviant").

Genetics and Race

Genetic theories also play a prominent role in contemporary debates about race. On the one hand, the Human Genome Project's discovery that little genetic variation exists among people (about .1 percent) received extensive publicity. On the other hand, research on what genetic differences do exist among people continues at a rapid rate. Examples include studies to determine genetic components of health disparities; studies to develop "race-based" therapeutics such as BiDil, the first drug to be developed and marketed specifically for blacks; and the Human Genome Diversity Project, which is looking at DNA from groups around the world to understand evolutionary history. Despite care taken to differentiate contemporary genetic theories about race from historical precedents such as Nazi eugenics, such theories do continue to assert that we can meaningfully understand the differences among people through analysis of DNA. Critics contend that social inequality is a much more useful frame for analyzing difference and promoting equality and that genetic theories about race are both scientifically questionable and socially misguided.

Bibliography:

1) Duster, Troy. 2003. Backdoor to Eugenics. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.

2) Hubbard, Ruth and Elijah Wald. 1999. Exploding the Myth: How Genetic Information Is Produced and Manipulated by Scientists, Physicians, Employers, Insurance Companies, Educators and Law Enforcers. Boston: Beacon Press.

3) Kevles, Daniel and Leroy Hood, eds. 1992. The Code of Codes: Scientific and Social Issues in the Human Genome Project. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

4) Nelkin, Dorothy and Laurence Tancredi. 1994. Dangerous Diagnostics: The Social Power of Biological Information. New York: Basic Books.

5) Rothman, Barbara Katz. 2001. The Book of Life: A Personal and Ethical Guide to Race, Normality and the Implications of the Human Genome Project. Boston: Beacon Press.

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