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Making the Mexican Diabetic: Race, Science, and the Genetics of Inequality

Online ISBN:
9780520949003
Print ISBN:
9780520267305
Publisher:
University of California Press
Book

Making the Mexican Diabetic: Race, Science, and the Genetics of Inequality

Published online:
24 May 2012
Published in print:
18 March 2011
Online ISBN:
9780520949003
Print ISBN:
9780520267305
Publisher:
University of California Press

Abstract

This ethnographic study animates the racial politics that underlie genomic research into type 2 diabetes, one of the most widespread chronic diseases and one which affects ethnic groups disproportionately. The book follows blood donations from “Mexican American” donors to laboratories that are searching out genetic contributions to diabetes. Its analysis lays bare the politics and ethics of the research process, addressing the implicit contradiction of undertaking genetic research that reinscribes race's importance even as it is being demonstrated to have little scientific validity. In placing DNA sampling, processing, data set sharing, and carefully crafted science into a broader social context, the book underscores the implications of geneticizing disease while illuminating the significance of type 2 diabetes research in American life.

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