Report Looks at Concerns Surrounding Race-Based Medicine
"Geneticizing Disease: Implications for Racial Health Disparities" (.pdf), Center for American Progress: The report, by Jamie Brooks and Meredith King of the Center for American Progress, details racial and ethnic health disparities and how the emergence of race-based medicine can be dangerous. According to the report, the "geneticizing" of disease is most appropriate in instances where it is known that a specific gene or gene variant can cause a disease; however, the report says that genetic medicine is not as appropriate when genes are linked to health conditions that are then labeled as race-specific. The report examines the evolution of racial categories in the U.S. According to the report, social determinants, such as residential segregation and other inequities, have continued to marginalize the status of minorities in the health system and perpetuate health disparities (Center for American Progress release, 1/15).
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