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Quite the contrary, race does excist even if people don't like to talk about it. Is it a coincidende sickle-cell anemia is occuring on such a high level among Blacks than others? Why deny it, when by acknowledging it and working with it and not against it, can save human lifes and give a correct medicination best suited for the health and well being of patients.
Genome-wide variation from one human being to another can be up to 0.5% (99.5% similarity)
- Chimpanzees are 96% to 98% similar to humans, depending on how it is calculated.
- Cats have 90% of homologous genes with humans, 82% with dogs, 80% with cows, 79% with chimpanzees, 69% with rats and 67% with mice.
- Cows (Bos taurus) are 80% genetically similar to humans
- 75% of mouse genes have equivalents in humans, 90% of the mouse genome could be lined up with a region on the human genome (source) 99% of mouse genes turn out to have analogues in humans (source)
- The fruit fly (Drosophila) shares about 60% of its DNA with humans
- About 60% of chicken genes correspond to a similar human gene.
Up to 0.5% difference is quite major considering how close chimpansees score with humans.
Source:
http://genome.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTD020730.html
“Each time we peer deeper into the human genome we uncover more valuable insight into our intricate biology,” said Dr. Venter. “With this publication we have shown that human to human variation is five to seven-fold greater than earlier estimates proving that we are in fact more unique at the individual genetic level than we thought.” He added, “It is clear however that we are still at the earliest stages of discovery about ourselves and only with additional sequencing of more individual genomes will we garner a full understanding of how our genes influence our lives.”
Source: http://www.jcvi.org/cms/press/press-...ter-institute/
Race, genes, and illness
By Sally Lehrman | April 19, 2007
DOES A "genetic component" cause a higher rate of premature births among black mothers? Do black people carry certain gene variants that give them weaker hearts? Do Asians have special genes that enable the drug Iressa to fight non-small cell cancer better in their lungs?
Yes, indeed, authors of several recent medical studies claim. More and more, researchers are holding out the hope that genetic differences may finally explain a good part of the troubling health disparities among races. Perhaps then, the reasoning goes, the powerful tools of molecular biology may help solve them.
This research is worth pursuing if it holds the promise to improve medical care. Still, whenever these claims arise, they deserve a tough second look. Race paired with genetics has a sordid history -- not just in Nazi Germany but also today, in the form of weakly documented evolutionary claims implying one group's superiority over another.
So far, the claims about race and medical genetics remain disturbingly fuzzy. What's meant by a "genetic component," for instance? The team at Washington University in St. Louis that studied early births accounted for other known variables, such as lack of prenatal care, and found that the higher rate among black women persisted. Based on the trends they saw, the group concluded there were racial differences at the genetic level -- despite lack of any data on genes.
The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine researchers studying heart function had used magnetic resonance imaging to compare heart muscle contractions in Chinese-Americans, whites, Hispanics, and African-Americans. They also pointed to genetic differences as a likely cause. But they hadn't yet looked at any genes, either.
In the original Iressa studies, Japanese patients did respond better to the drug. Once the researchers controlled for other factors, though, the statistical significance of the finding disappeared. Yet groups around the world remain hard at work searching for a race-related genetic cause.
Perhaps it's not surprising that these studies poorly describe genetics as it applies to race. When one team of philosophers asked 500 geneticists to point out what part of a DNA sample constituted a gene, these experts didn't concur.
Race may be an even trickier concept. Are the researchers referring to skin color? Hair type? Eye shape? Does nationality factor in? "If I were to ask everyone here, 'What is race?' I'd probably get as many answers as there are people," Howard University geneticist and ethicist Charmaine Royal told a group of anthropologists and geneticists recently gathered by the American Anthropological Association to discuss race and disease.
Even if we think we can agree on various groupings called races, we should understand the limits of how well they can help define health differences. "Asians" with ancestry in Vietnam or Laos, for instance, have very different health risks than those from China, who in turn differ from people with Japanese ancestry.
As science begins to intertwine genetics, medicine, and race, the results already are affecting our lives in important ways. We may be offered different tests, drugs, even vitamins, depending on our skin color. In 2005, regulators approved the first race-based drug, BiDil, for treating heart failure in black patients. Some pharmacologists have wondered whether race should affect prescription dosage, based on possible differences in drug metabolism.
It's hard to talk about race in this country, but with a new medical enterprise focused on biological difference, we are forced to confront it. The onus is on us. Lay people don't have to become experts prepared to decide whether genetics will help solve race-based health inequities. But we do need to understand the nature of the conversation.
Fortunately, we do have powerful weapons against poorly developed claims about biology and race. They are education, skepticism, and awareness. Participants at the meeting on race and disease offered two simple questions that we all should ask when we see these linked with genetics: What do the researchers mean by race? How did they come to the conclusion that it was important? While we many not know how to make observations in the lab or calculate the necessary statistics, we certainly can and should ask for clarity.
Sally Lehrman reports on health and science for Scientific American, the radio documentary series"The DNA Files," and other media.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/edi...s_and_illness/
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Originally Posted by Iberia;230511
"Race doesn't exist!"
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