IPR Research Notes

Race in Biotechnology Research

Spring 2007, Volume 29, Number 1

Dorothy Roberts

Should race be used as a category in science, law, and social policy? This is the driving question behind a two-year project to analyze how race-based technologies and biomedical research are treated in scientific and sociopolitical contexts and how these are related to race consciousness in social policies. IPR Faculty Fellow Dorothy Roberts leads the project.

Roberts, Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law and professor of African American studies and sociology, was intrigued by a resurgence of scientific interest in race-based genomic variation and the use of racial categorization—despite evidence from genetic and social scientists that race is a social construct without biological validity.

She asked, “Why are these biological definitions of race reappearing now, and what are the implications for understanding racial equality and identity?”

She gives the example of BiDil, approved by the FDA in 2005 as the first race-based prescription medicine. The drug is being marketed to treat heart failure specifically in African Americans. Its clinical trial was co-sponsored by the Association of Black Cardiologists and supported by the Congressional Black Caucus and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Using race as a biological category poses a risk of reinforcing racial stratifications as well as racist notions of human difference, she said. Considering the relationship between biotechnology research and the arenas of law and social policy, Roberts is examining the risks and benefits of race consciousness in scientific research, including studying the impact of racism on health and the need for equal access to medical care to eliminate race-based health inequities. Complicating the debate are the conflicting views held by African Americans themselves, which Roberts plans to bring to the forefront in her study.

To gauge popular understanding of the significance of race consciousness in biotechnology, Roberts is collecting government records, scientific publications, and mass media articles about new race-based technologies. She is also conducting interviews with scientists, doctors, activists, and entrepreneurs. By considering race-based biotechnologies from legal and sociopolitical standpoints, she hopes to provide a

more complete analysis of the social implications to enhance public and scientific discourse on the issue.

In addition to expanding current legal debates and sociological inquiry, Roberts will propose “an ethical framework to researchers and policymakers so that they have some practical guidance in determining whether to use race as a scientific category.”

The National Science Foundation has provided funding for the project.