The Ethics of Characterizing Difference: Guiding Principles on Using Racial Categories in Human Genetics

Abstract

We are a multidisciplinary group of Stanford faculty who propose ten principles to guide the use of racial and ethnic categories when characterizing group differences in research into human genetic variation.

Open letter

Since the completion of the Human Genome Project, research focused on human genetic variation, including differences among groups, has intensified. This focus has rekindled debates about the connection between genetic (DNA-level) traits and human 'racial' difference [1-5]. Scholars are divided on the question of whether racial categorization is an appropriate means of organizing potentially useful genetic data or a pernicious reification of historically destructive typologies [6,7]. To explore these issues, faculty from the humanities, social sciences, life sciences, law and medicine at Stanford University convened over the past few years to engage in an extended interdisciplinary dialog. The initial meeting consisted of a two-day workshop in 2003 that developed into an ongoing faculty research seminar sponsored by the Stanford Humanities Center, Affymetrix Corporation, the Mellon Foundation and the Research Institute of the Center for Comparative Studies on Race and Ethnicity. This seminar series, which continued for...