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Smart A, Tutton R, Ashcroft R, Martin P, Balmer A, Elliot R, Ellison GT. Social Inclusivity VS Analytical Acuity? A Qualitative Study of UK Researchers Regarding the Inclusion of Minority Ethnic Groups in Biobanks. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2017. [DOI: 10.1177/096853320800900205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
This paper examines how the drive to include minority ethnic groups in biomedical research raises challenging questions for the governance of some biobanks. Using findings from a qualitative study with researchers working at 10 UK biobanks that have been designed to explore common complex diseases, our study highlights the potential discordance between the twin imperatives of ‘social inclusivity’ and ‘analytical acuity’. While the researchers interviewed were keen to include minority ethnic groups in their research, they were also concerned that this could have deleterious effects on the precision of their analyses. In our discussion of these findings we show that there remains considerable debate as to the impact of including participants from minority ethnic groups on analytical acuity. Nevertheless, a principle of justice requires that potential participants from all ethnic groups should be given the opportunity to participate in and benefit from biomedical research, and UK law requires public bodies (including research councils) to demonstrate that there is no unintentional or unjustifiable ‘racial’ discrimination in their activities. Researchers' concerns about analytical acuity could result in calls for study designs that examine every ‘different’ ethnic group, which would have consequences for the governance of some biobank studies and for efforts to challenge the discredited yet resilient idea that differences between ethnic groups are innate, essential and immutable.
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Kerasidou A, Parker M. Does science need bioethicists? Ethics and science collaboration in biomedical research. RESEARCH ETHICS 2014; 10:214-226. [PMID: 26430467 PMCID: PMC4587541 DOI: 10.1177/1747016114554252] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Biomedical research is an increasingly multidisciplinary activity bringing together a range of different academic fields and forms of expertise to investigate diseases that are increasingly understood to be complex and multifactorial. Recently the discipline of ethics has been starting to find a place in large-scale biomedical collaborations. In this article we draw from our experience of working with the Malaria Genomic Epidemiology Network (MalariaGEN) and other research projects to reflect upon the integration of ethics into biomedical research. We examine the way in which ethics input may be valuable to research, the forms it tends to take, and also the problems and limitations of such collaborations.
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Prainsack B. Labouring towards self-fulfilment: personal genomics and the ‘participatory turn’. CRITICAL PUBLIC HEALTH 2014. [DOI: 10.1080/09581596.2011.560246] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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Hunt LM, Truesdell ND, Kreiner MJ. Genes, race, and culture in clinical care: racial profiling in the management of chronic illness. Med Anthropol Q 2013; 27:253-71. [PMID: 23804331 PMCID: PMC4362784 DOI: 10.1111/maq.12026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Race, although an unscientific concept, remains prominent in health research and clinical guidelines, and is routinely invoked in clinical practice. In interviews with 58 primary care clinicians we explored how they understand and apply concepts of racial difference. We found wide agreement that race is important to consider in clinical care. They explained the effect of race on health, drawing on common assumptions about the biological, class, and cultural characteristics of racial minorities. They identified specific race-based clinical strategies for only a handful of conditions and were inconsistent in the details of what they said should be done for minority patients. We conclude that using race in clinical medicine promotes and maintains the illusion of inherent racial differences and may result in minority patients receiving care aimed at presumed racial group characteristics, rather than care selected as specifically appropriate for them as individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linda M Hunt
- Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, MI, USA
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Hunt LM, Kreiner MJ. Pharmacogenetics in primary care: the promise of personalized medicine and the reality of racial profiling. Cult Med Psychiatry 2013; 37:226-35. [PMID: 23264029 PMCID: PMC3593998 DOI: 10.1007/s11013-012-9303-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Many anticipate that expanding knowledge of genetic variations associated with disease risk and medication response will revolutionize clinical medicine, making possible genetically based Personalized Medicine where health care can be tailored to individuals, based on their genome scans. Pharmacogenetics has received especially strong interest, with many pharmaceutical developers avidly working to identify genetic variations associated with individual differences in drug response. While clinical applications of emerging genetic knowledge are becoming increasingly available, genetic tests for drug selection are not as yet widely accessible, and many primary care clinicians are unprepared to interpret genetic information. We conducted interviews with 58 primary care clinicians, exploring how they integrate emerging pharmacogenetic concepts into their practices. We found that in their current practices, pharmacogenetic innovations have not led to individually tailored treatment, but instead have encouraged use of essentialized racial/ethnic identity as a proxy for genetic heritage. Current manifestations of Personalized Medicine appear to be reinforcing entrenched notions of inherent biological differences between racial groups, and promoting the belief that racial profiling in health care is supported by cutting-edge scientific authority. Our findings raise concern for how pharmacogenetic innovations will actually affect diverse populations, and how unbiased treatment can be assured.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linda M Hunt
- Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, 338 Baker Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
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de Vries J, Bull SJ, Doumbo O, Ibrahim M, Mercereau-Puijalon O, Kwiatkowski D, Parker M. Ethical issues in human genomics research in developing countries. BMC Med Ethics 2011; 12:5. [PMID: 21418562 PMCID: PMC3076260 DOI: 10.1186/1472-6939-12-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 98] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2010] [Accepted: 03/18/2011] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) provide a powerful means of identifying genetic variants that play a role in common diseases. Such studies present important ethical challenges. An increasing number of GWAS is taking place in lower income countries and there is a pressing need to identify the particular ethical challenges arising in such contexts. In this paper, we draw upon the experiences of the MalariaGEN Consortium to identify specific ethical issues raised by such research in Africa, Asia and Oceania. DISCUSSION We explore ethical issues in three key areas: protecting the interests of research participants, regulation of international collaborative genomics research and protecting the interests of scientists in low income countries. With regard to participants, important challenges are raised about community consultation and consent. Genomics research raises ethical and governance issues about sample export and ownership, about the use of archived samples and about the complexity of reviewing such large international projects. In the context of protecting the interests of researchers in low income countries, we discuss aspects of data sharing and capacity building that need to be considered for sustainable and mutually beneficial collaborations. SUMMARY Many ethical issues are raised when genomics research is conducted on populations that are characterised by lower average income and literacy levels, such as the populations included in MalariaGEN. It is important that such issues are appropriately addressed in such research. Our experience suggests that the ethical issues in genomics research can best be identified, analysed and addressed where ethics is embedded in the design and implementation of such research projects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jantina de Vries
- The Ethox Centre, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7LF, UK
- The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, OX3 7BN, UK
| | - Susan J Bull
- The Ethox Centre, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7LF, UK
- The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, OX3 7BN, UK
| | - Ogobara Doumbo
- Malaria Research and Training Centre, Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Odonto-Stomatology, University of Bamako, PO Box: 1805 Point G, Bamako, Mali
| | - Muntaser Ibrahim
- Institute for Endemic Diseases, University of Khartoum, Medical Campus, Qasser Street, PO Box 102 Sudan
| | - Odile Mercereau-Puijalon
- Institut Pasteur, Unité d'Immunologie Moléculaire des Parasites, 28 Rue du Dr Roux, 75724 Paris, Cedex 15, France
| | - Dominic Kwiatkowski
- The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, OX3 7BN, UK
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Michael Parker
- The Ethox Centre, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7LF, UK
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Parker M, Bull SJ, de Vries J, Agbenyega T, Doumbo OK, Kwiatkowski DP. Ethical data release in genome-wide association studies in developing countries. PLoS Med 2009; 6:e1000143. [PMID: 19956792 PMCID: PMC2771895 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Michael Parker and colleagues discuss the ethical issues associated with data release from genome-wide association studies in developing countries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Parker
- Ethox Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
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Bumiller K. The Geneticization of Autism: From New Reproductive Technologies to the Conception of Genetic Normalcy. SIGNS 2009. [DOI: 10.1086/597130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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Tutton R, Smart A, Martin PA, Ashcroft R, Ellison GTH. Genotyping the future: scientists' expectations about race/ ethnicity after BiDil. THE JOURNAL OF LAW, MEDICINE & ETHICS : A JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF LAW, MEDICINE & ETHICS 2008; 36:464-470. [PMID: 18840237 DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-720x.2008.292.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
The ongoing debate about the FDA approval of BiDil in 2005 demonstrates how the first racially/ethnically licensed drug is entangled in both Utopian and dystopian future visions about the continued saliency of race/ethnicity in science and medicine. Drawing on the sociology of expectations, this paper analyzes how scientists in the field of pharmacogenetics are constructing certain visions of the future with respect to the use of social categories of race/ethnicity and the impact of high-throughput genotyping technologies that promise to transform scientific practices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard Tutton
- ESRC Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics (CESA-Gen), Institute for Advanced Studies, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
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Bennett P, Smith SJ. Genetics, insurance and participation: how a Citizens' Jury reached its verdict. Soc Sci Med 2007; 64:2487-98. [PMID: 17418469 DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.02.029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2005] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Access to life insurance is subject to health discrimination. Whether this discrimination should take into account the results of predictive genetic tests is a topic of public debate. This paper draws from the deliberations of the Edinburgh (Scotland) Citizens' Jury on Genetic Test Results and Life Insurance to evaluate the capacity of one participatory research method to inform debates on genetics and insurance. We show that through a process of knowledge-building, cross-examination and deliberation, 'lay' jurors are able to assimilate complex information, engage in subtle argument and arrive at well-reasoned, clearly warranted conclusions. The Citizens' Jury approach has a further key advantage: it embraces the formation and articulation of normative ideas. It brings public understandings of how things ought to be into an arena dominated by 'expert' opinion. These normative indicators, which in this case relate to fairness and trust, are often overlooked by policy makers. However, they are key to democratic decision-taking and relevant for health promotion.
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Changing the paradigm from 'race' to human genome variation. Nat Genet 2004; 36:S5-7. [PMID: 15508004 DOI: 10.1038/ng1454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 83] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2004] [Accepted: 09/23/2004] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Knowledge from the Human Genome Project and research on human genome variation increasingly challenges the applicability of the term 'race' to human population groups, raising questions about the validity of inferences made about 'race' in the biomedical and scientific literature. Despite the acknowledged contradictions in contemporary science, population-based genetic variation is continually used to explain differences in health between 'racial' and 'ethnic' groups. In this commentary we posit that resolution of apparent paradoxes in relating biology to 'race' and genetics requires thinking 'outside of the box'.
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Rotimi CN. Are medical and nonmedical uses of large-scale genomic markers conflating genetics and 'race'? Nat Genet 2004; 36:S43-7. [DOI: 10.1038/ng1439] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2004] [Accepted: 09/10/2004] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
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Smart A, Martin P, Parker M. Tailored medicine: whom will it fit? The ethics of patient and disease stratification. BIOETHICS 2004; 18:322-342. [PMID: 15449405 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2004.00400.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
A key selling point of pharmacogenetics is the genetic stratification of either patients or diseases in order to target the prescribing of medicine. The hope is that genetically 'tailored' medicines will replace the current 'one-size-fits-all' paradigm of drug development and usage. This paper is concerned with the relationship between difference and justice in the use of pharmacogenetics. This new technology, which facilitates the identification and use of difference, has, we shall argue, the potential to lead to injustice either by the inappropriate use of difference or through the inappropriate failure to use difference. We build on empirical data from a detailed study of the range of options for the development of pharmacogenetics to present a consideration of the ethical issues that surround patient and disease stratification. In it we explore the ways in which the use of pharmacogenetics may lead to the creation of new, genetically stratified, forms of difference and new forms of injustice based on these divisions. We also examine the ways in which existing forms of difference and social stratification may interact with the use of pharmacogenetics. In conclusion, we suggest how an understanding of these ethical issues could usefully inform future policy discussions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Smart
- Oxford Genetics Knowledge Park, The Ethox Centre, Division of Public Health & Primary Health Care, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7LF, UK.
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Juengst ET. FACE facts: why human genetics will always provoke bioethics. THE JOURNAL OF LAW, MEDICINE & ETHICS : A JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF LAW, MEDICINE & ETHICS 2004; 32:267-191. [PMID: 15301191 DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-720x.2004.tb00473.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Some people dispute the relative importance of issues in genetics and biotechnology for the future of bioethics, either because they think the problems are time-limited or because they give priority to issue of human rights and social justice in health care. In fact, the special historical standing of genetic issue s in bioethics reflects four overlapping sources of moral sensitivity which ar inherent in the stories that genetic science tells and raise paradigmatic justice concerns: the implications of new genetic knowledge for people's understanding of their familial roles, ancestral origins, community memberships, and ethnic affiliations. Beneath worries over "genetic privacy," "the therapeutic gap," and the "post-human," this constellation of basic wellspring which both insures and justifies a central place for genetics on the agenda of bioethics.
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