Race and ethnicity have no real biological meaning
By Kevin Loria,
Tech Insider
| 11. 20. 2015
Untitled Document
DNA can tell us all kinds of things.
Genetic information can be used to uniquely identify a specific person using just a hair or a few drops of saliva. That data can also tell you if you have certain genetic ailments or are at an increased risk for others.
But one of the most common services provided by companies who do consumer DNA testing is an analysis of your "ancestry" based on your genetics, and there are real problems with that idea, geneticist Manolis Dermitzakis argued in a Reddit AMA question-and-answer session on November 17.
The University of Geneva genetics professor criticized attempts to pin down both "ancestral ethnicity" and "race" based on DNA.
That's because these things are concepts or ideas that humans have created, and they don't have a basis in genetics, according to Dermitzakis.
Genes can identify a person and find related people, but there's no genetic meaning of race or even ancestry — just because DNA can say you are related to a large number of people who live in a place doesn't mean you are...
Related Articles
By Isabelle Bartram
| 07.17.2024
Image by Kuzzat Altay from Unsplash
Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim minority in China, are mainly located in the autonomous region of Xinjiang. The Chinese government has pursued an aggressive settlement policy in this region since 1949, with the percentage of Han Chinese in the region increasing from five to forty percent in the second half of the 20th century. Since 2014, the Uyghurs have been subject to persecution and re-education – various sources have estimated that at least one million...
By Emma McDonald Kennedy
| 07.11.2024
Louise Perry’s recent article in The Spectator cautions against “The quiet return of eugenics,” a threat she locates in preimplantation genetic testing for polygenic disorders. The technology is billed as a way for parents undergoing IVF to select which embryo to implant based on information about each embryo’s genetic risk factors and traits. These reports, she says, give parents “a very full picture of the adult that embryo could become”––from their child’s risk of developing different diseases to their “likely...
By Elizabeth Ayoola, Essence | 06.18.2024
June 19th is World Sickle Cell Day, and to raise awareness about the condition, Wunmi Bakare and Dima Hendricks are launching a podcast. Both women have experience with sickle cell disease and aim to create a community where others...
By Sheila Kaplan, UC Berkeley School of Public Health | 06.20.2024
Image by Gennie Stafford from Flickr
These days, it’s a rare scientist who would admit to working in eugenics.
The word conjures historical horrors: mass sterilization of people judged unfit to reproduce, state anti-miscegenation laws, and Germany’s justification for the...