In the 20 years or so since the sequencing of the human genome, it’s perhaps fair to say that the promise of genomics has outweighed the reality.  What is perhaps not something that was ever expected was that genomics might encourage inequality, yet a new report from the Hastings Center suggests that’s a very real risk.

The authors ponder whether the current focus on genomics is crowding out other, potentially better, ways of reducing the health inequalities that are so prevalent in our society.  They warn that genomic data can help to prop up discredited notions of race, and treating various social behaviors as genetic.

The report outlines a number of ways in which genomics can perpetuate inequality:

• Genomics is crowding out ways of reducing health inequity.
• Despite mountains of data emphasizing the social and political nature of health disparities, the new focus racial difference in genomics has resulted in a shift from environmental causes to genetic causes.
• Health disparities quickly become imagined to be the result of DNA differences, as opposed to the intergenerational health effects of societal racism.
• Instead of measuring the environment and social conditions in meaningful ways, such as by studying how racial discrimination affects biology, genomics research reinforces the notion that race is determined by our genes.
• Genomic knowledge will likely go toward helping privileged people make their lives a little bit longer or a little bit better.

The report contains 10 essays covering key areas, such as medical anthropology, disability studies, social sciences, and philosophy.  Some of the highlights include Health for Whom? Bioethics and the Challenge of Justice for Genomic Medicine by Joel Michael Reynolds, Conceptualizing Race in the Genomic Age by Catherine Bliss, and Does Solidarity Require ”All of Us” to Participate in Genomics Research? by Carolyn P. Neuhaus.