The Importance of Race and Ethnic Background in Biomedical Research and Clinical Practice

A debate has recently arisen over the use of racial classification in medicine and biomedical research. In particular, with the completion of a rough draft of the human genome, some have suggested that racial classification may not be useful for biomedical studies, since it reflects “a fairly small number of genes that describe appearance”1 and “there is no basis in the genetic code for race.”2 In part on the basis of these conclusions, some have argued for the exclusion of racial and ethnic classification from biomedical research.3 In the United States, race and ethnic background have been used as cause . . .